The Way The World Works
by FantasyDeath
Summary: Nine year old Harry Potter discovers the wizard world on a fluke and decides he loves it. He creates a new identity and become someone else entirely. At eleven Harry recieves his Hogwarts letter, but it wont stop him from being him. And it helps that he's a metamorphmagus and a little more devious then people think. When the times comes, they wont even know what hit them. (Hiatus)
1. Chapter 1

**Title: **The Way The World Works (mxm) [A Harry Potter fanfic]

**Summary:** Nine year old Harry Potter discovers the wizard world on a fluke and decides he loves it. He creates a new identity and become someone else entirely. At eleven Harry recieves his Hogwarts letter, but it wont stop him from being him. And it helps that he's a metamorphangus and a little more devious then people think. When the times comes, they wont even know what hit them.

**Rating:** T (it may change)

**Warning: **This will be malexmale, however it will take a long time for that.

**Pairings: **Not sure yet

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Harry Potter or anything else you may recognize.

**Ch 1 - Rowan Balor Arawn**

A nine year old Harry James Potter was standing in the kitchen once again cooking dinner for his family. He didn't have anything against the part where he cooked, no it was the fact that he couldn't eat any of it. He loved cooking. He had loved it ever since his Aunt Petunia had shoved him how, but if they thought he liked it they surely wouldn't let him do it anymore. And that was something he couldn't let happen.

Harry was different, he knew that. He could change his hair just by thinking of it. In fact he could change anything about him if he wanted it. It was the only way he got any peace, when he pretended to be someone else.

He was a lot smarter then ordinary nine year olds and had a photo graphic memory. He remembered everything he had ever read or seen, it was weird sometimes but it also served great things. With the memory thing he could make sure he never got better marks then Dudley and stay in the background. Of **course** that didn't stop them from beating him up though.

Harry loved math. Math and cooking was his favorite things and he had long since read up on math to know what was going on in the world. He knew which horses to bet on, which companys would go under within a year. Every chance he had he read the newspaper to know what was going on in the world he took. For an nine year old boy he was smarter then most adults. He also knew the **signs** of manipulation when he saw them, it was something he had trained himself to do to make sure no-one ever tried to take advantage of him.

This particular day was september the forth and it was closing in on nightfall. Harry had always loved the night and the peace it came with, but this day he had a feeling something big was going to happen and Harry had long since learned to listen to his gut feeling. It was what kept him alive in most cases.

So when he was finally allowed to leave and go to sleep he stayed in the cupboard under the stairs until the sounds of moving people stopped. When he was sure they were asleep he raised his hand to where the lock to the door would be on the other side and concentrated on making it unlock. It only took a couple of seconds before the lock clicked open and Harry went outside. He **closed** the door and locked it behind him and then stood still.

His hair changed and became a dark red and longer, his eyes becoming grey. In a few seconds he **filled out** and became seven years older. He pulled off the glasses that he no longer needed and concentrated on his clothes to make them fit. Ones this was done he looked like a whole different person. Even his smile was slightly different.

A sixteen year old boy now walked out of nr. 4 **Private** Drive, Surrey.

As Harry walked past the other houses he couldn't help but feel resentful, they had what he had always wanted. They had a family. As he walked he carelessy braided his long hair to keep it out of his eyes in the faint wind. He walked with no real theory of where and instead just concentrated on the beauty of the night. Before long he was at the train station and for once he took the chance. He didn't have a **ticket** but he had find that just staring someone in the eye he could make them do the most strange things. His eyes really were grey and his hair red, but a couple of years earlier his aunt had let it slip that Harrys mother had green eyes so he had changed his to green to feel closer to her and annoy his aunt.

When he stepped off the train he was somewhere that was definitely not small. Even if it were night people were still walking around and moving about. After some time he came upon a sign saying he were in London. Harry spent the **next** hour just walking around and following the flow. It wasn't the most productive thing to do but the longer he walked the bigger the map in his head became.

At 11:00 pm he came across a group people that could only be described as weird. The were wearing long robes, men, women and children alike. If Harry wasn't so weird himself he would have left them alone and went home and forgotten about them until his eleventh birthday.

However as it was he was weird and he didn't forget it. So he followed them as they walked away towards a part of the city he hadn't been to yet. When they entered a shady looking club called the Leaky Cauldron it was because of the fact that he could disappear completely should he want it that he went in. He pulled up his hood as he walked in and followed the company to the back where they **opened** a back-door.

Harry walked after them with silent steps that came from years of running from bullies and the only one that saw him were the bar-keep that was nice enough to not ask questens.

He could do so later, after all.

In the alley Harry watched as they took out a stick and pointed it at some of the rocks in the wall. He wondered what that was supposed to do, when suddenly the wall shifted and moved until where there was previously nothing at all was an **open** gate to what could only be described another world. He followed them in with a look of pure wonder on his face and all he could really think about was the fact that magic was real. Which meant that he wasn't a freak.

He soon lost sight of the people he followed as he walked around trying to understand what it was he saw. It was amazing! Everything was bloody amazing! The people were weird and some were just stuck up but it was still the best day of his young life.

Harry quickly made his way past the crowds until he came to a grand building that was a little awry. As he walked closer he was shocked to see small creatures that he guessed to be goblins or something standing in battle stance ready to kill anyone who tried to steal by the double doors. When he came upon the doors he saw the written **message**:

**_Enter_**_ stranger, but take heed,_

_for what awaits the sin of greed, _

_for those who take, but do not _**_earn_**_,_

_must _**_pay_**_ most dearly in their turn._

_So if you seek beneath our floors_

_a treasure that was never yours,_

_thief, you have been warned, beware_

_of finding more then treasure there._

Harry shuddered. He didn't doubt that one would surely regret stealing from them and he was going to remember that. And so, he went in.

Inside it was a sight he never thought was real. There was high desks with the same grey creatures behind them with sharp teeth and the same people as before was walking around. He saw a couple of them sneering at the creatures and he couldn't understand why. They looked vicious and Harry didn't understand why you would want to alientate with them. It seemed like a terrible mistake to do.

Harry cautiously walked up to the closest desk and tried to look as friendly as possible. In his experience friendly was always better then sneering.

"Excuse me sir, but is it possible for me to set up **an account**?" The creature sneered at him and looked him up and down before calling out for a Snarktooth to come. The new creature that he now decided to call goblins whether he was right or not, came and sneered at him even more. It seemed like something the two goblins had in common.

Maybe they are related!

Harry was interrupted in his musings when they arrived at a door where Snarktooth pulled it open and pushed him through. Inside it looked exactly like what he thought a **bank** room would look like. Snarktooth stood behind the desk before looking up at him with irritation clear in his eyes.

"Name." It wasn't a questen.

"Harry Potter." Snarktooth narrowed his eyes before muttering to himself about stupid wizards, though of course Harry didn't know that. Harry watched with confused grey eyes as Snarktooth pulled out a bunch of papers and started putting them on the desk. Surely he would know if he already had **an account**, wouldn't he? Or was someone trying to keep him ignorant of the wizarding world. He knew the easiest way to manipulate people were if they had no idea what they were getting into and needed the support.

Snarktooth sneered again. "You already have a trust vault and a family vault, though you will need the key for the first one and be of legal age to the second one."

Harry almost snarled as he realized what this meant. He didn't have a key and no matter how old he looked at the moment he wasn't of legal age yet. "Would a blood test do?"

"It will do, but the ministry wont like it." This time Snarktooth snarled and Harry got the distinct feeling that he didn't like the ministry, whoever the hell they were. And Harry had learned that more often then not, the people that were subjected to injustice where the ones that knew the true character of people. It Snarktooth didn't trust the ministry then neither did Harry.

His voice was hard, a voice no nine year old should use. "Do it."

Snarktooth did something with his face that Harry supposed could be seen as a smile. It was down right creepy though and Harry wondered what the hell he had just agreed to.

"Give me your hand and don't move." Harry carefully stretches out his hand after he has changed back to his nine year old self, complete with the red hair and grey eyes. To his credit, Snarktooth doesn't even blink and Harry wonders if what he can do is normal in this world that he stumbled into.

He hissed as suddenly Snarktooth pulled a knife out of thin air slashed a cut in the middle of his hand. If it wasn't for his high pain tolerance he would probably have cried out, but all he did not was hiss and take a deep breath. The blood spilled down onto the parchment on the desk and Harry watched fascinated as words formed where the blood was sucked into the paper.

He could see the words that formed and that he was shocked was an understatement.

**Full name: Harrison James Potter nee Evans**

**Date of birth: 1980 july 31st**

**Parents: Lily Rose Potter nee Evans and James Charlus Potter**

**Godfather(s): Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Severus Snape**

**Godmother(s): Alice Longbottom, Narcissa Malfoy, Bellatrix Lestrange nee Black**

**Muggle Guardian(s): Petunia Dursley (illegally), Vernon Dursley (illegally)**

**Magical Guardian(s): Albus Dumbledore (illegally) Sirius Black (legally)**

**Heir to lordship(s): Potter, Ravenclaw, Evans, Gryffindor, Black, Hufflepuff, Slytherin (by right of conquest), Le Fay, Merlin, Amour &amp; Peverell**

**Estates: Potter Mansion, Black Mansion, Grimmauld Place, Hogwarts 25%, Ravenclaw Cottage, Godric's Hollow, Hogwarts 25%, Chamber of Secrets, Slytherin Mansion, Salazar's Manor, Hogwarts 25%, Durmstrang 71%, Helga's Manor, Hogwarts 25%, Ravenclaw Library (Hogwarts, the Restricted Section), Morgana's Cottage, Le Fay Manor, Avalon, Merlin's Manor, Amour Mansion, Evans Manor, Evans Cottage, Peverell Mansion, Cadmus Cottage, Ignatius Manor, Black Manor, Azkaban Island, Azkaban Prison**

**Investments: The Daily Prophet 64%, Zonko's 33%, Madame Malkin's Robes For All Occasions 41%, The Leaky Cauldron 16%, The Three Broomsticks 51%, Potter Inc. 88%, Evans Com. 67%, Flourish ans Blotts 14%, Burkin and Bergin 16%, Lorette's Inn 23% **

**Vault(s): Potter Family Vault, Personal Trust Vault, Merlins Vault, Black Family Vault, Rowena's Personal Vault, Ravenclaw Family Vault, Le Fay Family Vault, Morgana's Personal Vault, Sirius Personal Vault, Peverell Family Vault, Amour Family Vault, Helga's Personel Vault, Hufflepuff Family Vault, Slytherin Family Vault, Salazar's Personal Vault, Elizabeth's Personal Vault, King Arthur's Personal Vault, The Vault of Avalon, Evans Family Vault, Lily's Personal Vault, James's Personal Vault**

**Abilities: Metamorphangus, Parceltongue, Animagus form(s)**

**Curse(s): Horcrux (Tom Marvolo Riddle aka Lord Voldemort)**

**Block(s): 90% of magic (Albus Dumbledore), animagus (Albus Dumbledore), parcelmagic (Albus Dumbledore), creature inheritance (Lily Potter nee Evans)**

**Creature Inheritance: 1 third Veela, 1 third Vampyre, 1 third Wizard (human)**

**Affinity: Grey**

**Immunity: Love Potions (Veela inheritance), Compulsions (Vampyre inheritance)**

**Marriage Contract: Ginevra Weasley (illegally signed by Albus Dumbledore)**

**Payments: Molly Weasley (200 galleons a month), Ginevra Weasley (250 galleons a month), Ronald Weasley (200 galleons a month), Hermione Granger (200 galleons a month), Petunia Dursley (200 galleons a month), Vernon Dursley (200 galleons a month), Albus Dumbledore (450 galleons a month), The Order of the Phoenix (500 galleons a month)**

**Withdrawals: Invisible Cloak (Potter Family Vault by Albus Dumbledore) **

To say that Harry was pissed would be an understatement. He was furious. Sure he may only be nine years old but he knew that stealing, it was wrong and that was what that Dumbledore man was doing. He was stealing from him and he was giving it to others who had no business taking his money! And worst of all was that there was nothing he could do. He was nine years old! Who would even listen to him?! And he wasn't even supposed to be with the Dursleys!

And what the heck was a Horcrux and why was it in him?! What kind of person leaves something like that in a baby?!

"Well thats bad." Snarktooth looked like something horrible had happened, which it had. Someone man was stealing from him! On the other hand, this could be turned in his favor.

"Do you send regularly statements to this Dumbledore man?" Snarktooth snarled again.

"Yes but they should have been sent to you, Mr Potter." The goblin sneered again as he started muttering insults in Gobbledegook at Dumbledore and his meddling ways. The man was a danger that had alienated the Goblin Nation in more then one occasions. And what he was doing now was pure deadly. Everyone knew you can't supress that much of ones magic without deadly consequences! The old man was going senile.

Harry meanwhile had aged himself to sixteen again and was thinking of different things to do. The first one was release his magic. He may not be old but he had enough common sense to know that if it stayed it would be deadly. The second thing was to remove whatever curse he was under and the third was to get some money to buy books for. He needed to know how the damn world he had just entered worked.

"I want you to remove all of the blocks and the curse. I also want you to keep sending the statements like you do now like I've never even heard of this place. For a fee of course."

He adds as he sees the way Snarktooth is preparing to snarl at him.

"Of course, if you will just wait here." And then Snarktooth leaves and Harry is left to his own devices. As he stood there and tracing the pattern in the stone floor he also realized that he wasn't a kid. A kid had a childhood and was happy. They could say what they wanted without the risk of being beaten to death. No, Harry James Potter was not a kid and he was going to ruin this Dumbledore man that saw it fit to control his life like he could.

And Harry was going to dance on his grave.

Snarktooth soon came back with two other goblins after him and a couple of items that he had no idea what they could be used for. They started drawing runes on the ground around him and said a short "Sit down." to him which he responded to immediatly. There was just something about them that terrified him.

"You will have to return to you natural looks." One of the goblins that had followed Snarktooth in said and Harry once again closed his eyes and concentrated on returning to his original looks. Snarktooth gave a curt "Good.".

The three goblins started chanting in a different language and Harry could feel something in him changing. Soon however it became to painful and a scream tore itself from him and his back arched from the ground he was laying on. His started blacking and it felt like he was on fire. He fainted a couple of times only to be rewoken to the pain when the goblins started a new ritual.

When he came to the next time, his whole body was sore and aching. Yet he was feeling like a weight was lift from his shoulders. He stood up on shaky legs and almost jumped to the roof when Snarktooth walked in.

"You're up. Good."

Harry sneered at him. "For you maybe, but I want to sleep."

"The final adjustments will be ready soon, then you can anything you want from your vault and no-one will know." Snarktooth sneered at him, and Harry got the impression Snarktooth wanted to hit something. Though he couldn't understand why.

"I would like to check out 200 of whatever currency this place has. I have books to buy."

Snarktooth sneered again and showed those creepy teeths. "Someone'll take you down to your personal vault later."

Harry was left looking into thin air as Snarktooth left again and he was left alone. His breath was elaborated as he tried to come to terms with and understand what he had just learned. Which was basically that someone was stealing from him. He didn't know what a veela was or what they could do and he had no idea what parceltongue was. He was clueless and he hated that. He hated that he was so young!

After waiting for what felt like an eternity, Snarktooth came back with someone else following him. "Griphook will take you down." And then Snarktooth left again to do whatever it was these creatures did. It was, after all, in the middle of the night and even Harry, who was used to little sleep, was starting to feel the effects.

By the time they came to his vault he was ready to throw up. He had never been one for roller coasters and he wasn't about to start now. He stood on wobbly legs as Griphook opened a vault and almost fell over face first when he entered it. It was huge! And it was filed with gold, silver and bronze.

"Take what you want, no-one will know." Griphook stated sounding almost bored.

"What is worth most?"

Griphook sneered. "The gold ones are called galleons and they are worth most. It's 17 sickles on a galleon and 29 knuts in a sickle."

Harry almost fell over. How can gold be worth so little! "I'll take 200 galleons then."

Griphook produced a bag, again out of seemingly thin air and started putting some of the gold coins in there. When he was finished he held the bag out to him and Harry gratefully took it. He was rich! He could buy his own clothes and the books he was going to buy! He wondered if he was going to have to go to some special school.

For the first time in eight years, Harry James Potter was happy. And Dumbledore had no idea.

Now he just needed a new name to use. Something unusual but ordinary at the same time.

Something you could forget.

Something like Rowan Balor Arawn.

**—**

**A/N: Thank you for reading! I hope you liked it! I'm not sure when the next update will be as this just appeared in my brain.**

_**-FantasyDeath**_


	2. Chapter 2

**Title: **The Way The World Works (mxm) [A Harry Potter fanfic]

**Summary:** Nine year old Harry Potter discovers the wizard world on a fluke and decides he loves it. He creates a new identity and become someone else entirely. At eleven Harry recieves his Hogwarts letter, but it wont stop him from being him. And it helps that he's a metamorphangus and a little more devious then people think. When the times comes, they wont even know what hit them.

**Pairing:** Don't know yet but it will be male/male.

**Rating: **T (it may change)

**Warning: **There will be Dumbledore, Ron, Weasley, Hermione, Gryffindor and generally light side bashing!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Harry Potter or anything else you may recognize!

**Ch 2 - Knockturn Alley**

It took a week for Harry to return to the Leaky Cauldron, thanks to his lovely aunt finding an unusual amount of chores for him to do. But for him time flew by so fast he barely noticed it. He was incredibly anxious. He couldn't wait to go back and by a bunch of books and other stuff you needed when you wanted to be a warlock. Or whatever they called themselfs.

When he came back night had just fallen and he had barely managed to escape without getting caught, but he concidered that to be fun. To make a fool out of Vernon, even if the only one who knew it was him it was still fun.

So a week later he stood outside of the Leaky Cauldron, wondering why no-one else seemed to see it. It didn't make any sence, though he supposed neither did magic. But that was totally different. But it could very well be magic and if it was so then he wanted to learn how he could do the same thing. It would be incredibly cool and maybe he would finally have some alone time.

Harry walked in looking the same as he did the week before, only without the hood as he didn't really care for it and it was one of those rare times that his aunt washed something and he wasn't going to complain. It gave him time he otherwise wouldn't have and he was going to use it wisely. Which was why he had taken the train to London again, only this time he had actually payed for it.

Harry walked to the bar-keep that was sweeping the bar and said:

"Can you open the gate to the alley for me please?" The bar-keep, whos name he still didn't know looked up at him and looked him over before nodding his head and made that sign with his head that meant "follow me".

He followed the bar-keep to the back where he had been the first time and watched as the man took out a stick and pointed it at the stones in a way that was clearly integrated in his brain.

"What's your name?" Harry spurted out before he could stop himself.

The bar-keep laughed slightly before replaying. "Tom, what's yours?"

He ducked his head slightly and said: "Rowan." And the Harry walked through the opening tio the other side, the gate closing behind him.

As it was earlier then the last time he had been there, there was a lot more people there, walking around and buying things. However he could barely see anyone over the age of ten and thanked god he had enough sense too make himself look older. He saw a family of red-heads, but their color was a lot lighter then his. He decided that he didn't like that color very much as it was border-lining on both orange and pink. When he saw a shop with books in the window, he immediatly entered there, feeling a thrill shoot through him.

It weren't that many people inside and he could see books covering the walls. It was heaven!

Harry took one of the baskets that was standing next to the door and started walking through the shop, picking up books as he went. It was books on all kinds of things, from history to runes to sports and he didn't really care. He took anything that sounded interesting. But when he came to the shelf for potions, he was in paradise. He took pratically one of every book there was, thankful for the fact that the basket was so big, even if it didn't seem like it. By the time he was finished he had to have had over a hundred books and he didn't really care. He took some book on a place called Hogwarts too, though he wasn't really sure what that was.

The man at the checkout had eyes comically big by the time he had managed to figure out which books Harry was buying and he couldn't help but snicker a little at the face he was making. He looked like a child at christmas morning, or how he would imagine one would look as he had never really had one.

"That will be 157 galleons, sir." The man had thin hair and brown eyes with a long nose and thin lips. His eyes were filled with glee.

Harry brought out the bag he had brought with him and started piling money on the desk, while counting them. He wasn't going to give that man a penny more then the books cost. The man had the same look in his eyes that Vernon did when he got money. Greedy bastard.

It wasn't until he was finished that he realized he had no way of carrying his things. His solution was simple. "I'll give you one more if I can keep the basket." The man eagerly hell out his hand and Harry let a lone galleon fall down in it and walked away. He walked out the shop with a smile on his face that, had anyone seen it, they would have worried for his sanity. But as it was no did and Harry walked out of the alley happily smiling for the treasures he had baught. It was definitely worth it.

—

The next day Harry is up at six a clock waiting for someone to unlock the door to the cupboard while reading one of the books he had gotten. It was a book on potions, one that explained while certain ingrediens couldn't be in the same potion because then the whole thing would explode and such. It was a lot more interesting then he thought it would be. He may not know what some of the things in it were which were why he had a book on herbology open next to him and an notebook where he was taking notes to know which were which and how they looked like. For him it was fun, for someone else it would have been hell on earth. But Harry wasn't someone else.

"Boy! Get out here and cook breakfest!" Aunt Petunias voice sounded through the door as she unlocked it and Harry carefully hid the books in the corner.

Harry sighed. "I'm coming Aunt Petunia."

He walked into the kitchen and started the stove to make bacon to the whales that would soon be up. He cooked it without so much as looking at it, going after the smell to know when they were ready and done. Then he put the table and everything else they would eat. Ones he was finished Petunia came in again and shooed him out to make the garden. Harry did it in silence as he waited to be yelled at to come in again to make lunch.

Ones lunch was ready he had five minutes in the bathroom to finish up and brush his teeth before he had to go back in the cupboard again. He had gotten a few vegetables that Dudley hadn't wanted for lunch today and even if it wasn't much, it was better then nothing.

When he was in the cupboard again he took out the books he had gotten and continued reading them, making notes here and there while ignoring his cousin that was running up and down in the stairs. It really didn't bother him anymore and it could only be good for Dudley so what the heck, beside he really didn't feel like getting yelled at at the moment. He was to busy reading.

By the time dinner came around he had finished the book and started on another about the history about the wizarding world. It was fascinating, but not nearly as much fun as potions. But he wanted to learn everything there was about the wizarding world and history was a big part about that. And the more he read the angrier he got. They were stuck! They were repeating the same thing over and over again and yet they never saw it! They didn't see the error in their ways and he was nine and even he knew what DNA was! It was revolting. They were stuck in the past and repeated the sam mistakes again and again and every time someone didn't fit in they were instantly labeled as evil. It was sick!

So Harry continued to read, occasinally scoffing as something he had thought were illegal were done and as he read about aurors he couldn't help but be disgusted. The things these people did were horrible and if you weren't like them then you didn't have a chance.

Eventually Harry gave up and opened up the law book he had baught and reading through it. And he hated it. IT basically declared the pure-bloods gods and creatures to be less the scum at their feet. Vampyres, werewolfs, goblins, they had no rights to do anything. The goblins could only enter ministry ground if they officially summoned and that usually meant they were sentenced to death. Werewolfs were concidered animals and had no rights to do more then sit on their arses and look pretty and hoping maybe someone will take pity on them and give them some money.

Needless to say, Harry was pissed.

By the time he went to sleep he was so mad he was prepared to kick someone in the balls the next time he saw a wizard. And he really didn't see why everyone was so scared about this Voldemort guy, he had at least some ideals that could work. And through everything he had read he had only ever read about how muggles were great people who deserved respect and should be protected. It made him laugh at how naïve they were when it came to this world. Muggles weren't as innocent as these people wanted to think they were, in fact if they would go to war it would he the witch trials all over again, and while some would survive it somehow, they managed to forget to think about the children that would be caught in the middle of it. A good shot could shoot a wand out of someones hands with a hundred feets distance and not get a scratch.

They were stupid, pure and simple.

And Harry wanted to hit their heads in.

He dreamt about magic that night and how it would feel like to be a real wizard. One that actually knew what he was talking about. About unicorns and centaurs and werewolfs.

About happiness.

When morning came the next day Harry spent it the same way he did every other day. He made breakfest and went to school. There he was careful not to do better then Dudley in any way. When he got home he got an banana from Petunia and went to sit in the cupboard again. In the cupboard he continued reading the books he had gotten, not really checking the cover before. So when he came to a book on ancient runes he was ready to pass out. He went through the entire basket looking for the other books on runes since he regretfully couldn't understand what they were talking about in the one he had started to read. He found one that was for beginners and eagerly started reading it.

Four and a half hours later, Harry had finally finished reading the book on runes and whether he knew it or not it would be a start to a wonderful life.

Harry made dinner again and was awarded with a full meal for ones in a while and then made the dishes while humming low under his breath. Before he went to bed he read another one of the books on runes the one that was apperently a school book for first years or something. He didn't really care, all that mattered was that when he understood what it read it was amazing.

And he loved it.

The next month was the same. He went up in the morning, did his chores, went to school went home and did more chores before going to his cupboard and reading whatever sounded the most interesting and then making dinner. If he was lucky he got to eat more then some small scrapes. He got two beatings from his uncle and five from his cousin and his friends, but it didn't really bother him anymore. He found the books on how to heal broken bones and fixed it himself, after trying on the pillow first of course. He also learned that wands have tracking devices that would go off if he did magic during the summer. Every magic he did now was counting as accidental magic and was okay. As long as the muggle, which he had learned was humans without magic, didn't see anything weird.

—

It was a friday in late october that he finally managed to sneak out again to go to what he learned was called Diagon Alley and Gringotts, he needed more money.

He left around nine a clock after he had fixed his looks to what he usually looked like when he went there. While he was standing in front of the Dursleys house wondering how long he could be gone, a giant three floored bus suddenly stopped in front on him. The doors opened and a man thrust his head out and looked at Harry with squinting eyes at him before saying:

"Well come one then, we don't have all day. Get on."

Harry, though numb, stepped on and almost immediatly after he had sit down on one of the strange beds and given the man that introduced himself as Stan a galleon and told him where to go, the bus started again. And Harry honestly feared for his life. It went so fast it was a miracle that they didn't hit something and died a horrible death by being squashed alive.

By the time they stopped, Harry was ready to throw up and he walked off and almost kissed the ground. He was just that grateful. He walked into the Leaky Cauldron with a sigh as he observed the way the people in their acted. They seemed...happy almost. Happier then before at least and while Harry wondered why he really didn't have the energy to care right now. He was busy trying to regain his breathing after that death trap that he would most likely ride in again.

He pushed his way through the crowds towards the bar while trying to not get trampled to death. It took him five minutes to only get from the door to the bar and his mood was not improving. He wanted to leave. He didn't like crowds, they made him dizzy and angry. By the time he made it to the bar he had a scowl on his face that he quickly turned into a smile when the bar-keep whos name started on T walked up to him.

"What's with the crowd?" He asked while trying to not appear to hostile. He really needed a wand.

"It's Halloween and the eight anniversary since You-Know-Whos death." Tom was smiling and looked generally happy and all Harry wanted to do was hit him on his nose. Didn't anyone wonder where he was? Did they really trust Dumbledore so much that they followed him blindly? It made him sick all over again and he who had just recovered from the crazy bus and Stan.

Harry smiled at him. "That's great! Do you think you can open the gate to Diagon Alley for me?"

Tom nodded and Harry followed him back to the small alley where the gate was and waited impatiently for him to open it while cursing himself for not getting a wand the last time he was here. It sucked having to ask for help each time he wanted to get in.

The gate opened and Tom went back inside, thinking of the odd character that with the powerful aura, while Harry went inside Diagon Alley. Inside people were walking around in robes again and he could hear laughter and if it wasn't for the fact that he had read nearly all of the books, the ones he understood that is, then he wouldn't have had any idea of what they were celebrating. It was hilarious really, how gullible these people were.

Harry quickly made his way to Gringotts and was happy to say that they were goblin and he wasn't an idiot. Apperently they were also incredibly hostile, though he didn't understand where the book got that concidering how wizards treated them. He would be hostile too. Inside it was far less people and Harry let out an audible sigh when he realized this. He really wasn't a people person. He stepped up to the closest desk and was about to ask for Griphook when he realized that it was him sitting there. At least Griphook sounded like a male name.

He smiled. "Hello Griphook, is there something that connects directly to my vault that I can use instead of going here every time my money runs out?"

Griphook stared at him and Harry blinked, unsure about what to do now. Perhaps it really wasn't Griphook standing there and he was now going to be hanged for saying the wrong name! But no, was Griphook was thinking was things that not even the most well respected wizard would be offered. He was thinking of teaching the boy Gobbledegook. No wizard had known it since Godric's time and the boy was an descended of Godric so according to goblin law it should be possible. If the boy wanted to of course. He was incredibly bright for a human nine year old. However that might have to do with the vampyre part of him.

Harry was still staring up at Griphook when the goblin started to sneer and snarl and Harry feared for his life a second time that night when the goblin walked down from behind the desk. Griphook started walking down the maze of a corridor Harry let himself be led mostly because he had no idea where they were going and when they stopped Harry was on his way to become dizzy. They entered an office that looked like the one from the first time he had been there and he walked in.

In the middle of the room behind the desk another goblin that he recognised sat, Snarktooth snarled at them for interrupting him without asking and was about to yell at them when he realized who the human were. It was young Mr Potter who was being manipulated mercilessly. He sighed and allowed them to enter before sitting down behind his desk ones more and waiting for an explanation.

Griphook sneered and said. "The boy wishes for a pouch connected to his vault and to him only."

"Very well Mr Potter we will need your blood again." Snarktooth said and fought the urge to snarl at them. He really wasn't in a good mood. Of sure, Voldemort was evil, but he had been good for business and that was something all goblins valued in a wizard above all. And the way they spoke to them but that they didn't know.

Harry stretched his arm out again and watched as blood feel onto the pouch that was suddenly just their. Al though now he knew it was magic it was still amazing. The blood disappeared in it and Harry felt a shiver curse through him and watched amazed as the pouch sealed itself shut. And then he was given it and they were shooed away.

They walked in silence back and Harry took this time to look at his new pouch and experimentally sticking his hand into it while thinking of a galleon. When he pulled his hand out again there was a galleon resting in it and Harry was officially amazed. He concidered putting it back in the bag when he remembered something about fees in the book he read about goblins, they didn't do anything for free.

He nodded to himself and called out. "Griphook!"

Griphook turned around and was suddenly staring at a galleon in front of his face. He followed the arm holding it until he came to look at Mr Potters face.

Harry was getting impatient, he had things to do dammit! "Here, as a fee." And he thrust the golden galleon into Griphooks unexpteced hands and as he now recognised where he was he walked off. And he didn't look back. If he had he would have seen the look of complete and utter bewilderment on Griphooks face and he would have wondered why the heck he was looking so weird. Instead he opted for walking out of the bank and doing what he was here to do. Shopping.

He started with buying a magically expanded trunk that all he had to do was say the right word and it would shrink and another word and it would grow big again. It was keyed to his magical signature so only he could open it and it had three compartments. After that he went to Madame Malkin's and got robes and shirts and pants. He had a hard time not to laugh at the robes and at the end selected only two, one regular and one dress-robe, though he couldn't see the difference. Both was a dark green but the dress-robe had silver in it too while the other only had black. He quite liked them actually, if he looked pass the dress part.

When he was finished he walked around just trying to understand where certain shops was. Eventually he found himself completely lost with no recollection of where the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron was. Harry looked around and noticed for the first time that it looked different where he was. Gloomier somehow. And then it hit him. This was probably Knockturn Alley! The place where they sold some rather, not so legal things. And also a place where he could get a wand and no-one would know.

With that thought in mind Harry walked faster while looking into all the shops that he could without being to obvious. Finally he came upon one that seemed like a good choice, if not the only one. He was starting to like this Ministry less and less. He opened the wooden door and and a bell sounded. A man came out from behind another door and stepped up behind the dark wooden counter.

Harry carefully walked up to the counter and tried not to recoil when he smelt whatever was behind the door the man had just walked through. "I need a wand." He said straight to the point.

The man suddenly smiled and started bending down behind the counter and took up some stuff that Harry guessed was whatever you made wands of. To him it looked like different kinds of wood.

"Raise your hand and sweep it over this and we'll see what wood you need." The mans voice was scratchy but Harry did as he said, wondering when to stop when he suddenly felt something different. Something warm. It was pleasent actually and Harry picked the wood up discovering it was a dark brown. So dark it could almost be mistaken for black.

The man took it and smiled. "Ash. Good choice." Then he put it down and with a wave of his wand the other woods went away and in there place stood bowls of something. Harry raised his arm again and started sweeping again, before suddenly stopping when he felt something similar to the feeling the wood gave him only stronger. He picked it up, but continued when he felt another pull. When he knew what he was looking for it wasn't so hard.

"This." He said and picked up another bowl.

The man smiled again. "Very good. Basilik venom and unicorn blood willingly given." Harry stared in surprise as the man took out a measuring tape and started taking his measurements. When the man was finished he stepped back and Harry found himself relaxing again. The man really was creepy.

The man nodded and spoke to himself a few moments before saying: "Your wand will be ready in a week. Your name?"

Harry was inwardly sweating as he said: "Rowan Arawn." He started sweating even more when the man frowned.

"That is you name?"

Harry nodded. "Rowan Balor Arawn."

The man suddenly smiled again. "Then I will put you down as Balor, see you in a week. You will pay then." And Harry was abruptly thrown out of the shop.

He wandered off slightly worried and concerned for his own safety. What was wrong with the name Rowan? He quite liked it. He hadn't read anything about some important person with that name so what was wrong with it? It was a wonderful name according to him! He quite liked it.

Or was that something you did in the wizarding world? Calling people by their middle names? He really needed to ready those books on wizard customs. On the way back to where he though Diagon Alley was he passed another book-store and this one clearly had other books then the one before. It was called Flourish something.

Harry walked in and walked straight for the books ignoring the other two people who were there, both with light blond hair. They were clearly father and son. Harry picking up books after books and when he came to one on reading minds he bought everyone there was on the matter. When he was finished he had over two dozen books and his arms were screaming at him to let them go.

He walked up to the counter and put them down with a bang. The old man whom he guessed worked here smiled at him and started counting how much it would cost. Meanwhile Harry watched the older of the two blonds as they looked around the shop. The younger one had to be his age and looked to be quite rich. Too bad he could expose who he really was, he thought, now that would be a bang.

He blinked as a voice cut through his haze. "43 galleons." Harry absentmindedly pulled it out from the pouch and took the books that he had just payed for. He put them in the bag that was slung over his shoulder that was magically expanded so he could keep as many books in it as he wanted. It was a good buy that he bought together with the trunk.

He walked out of the shop unaware of the looks that followed him. Looks filled with awe. Tehy could feel the allure and if it weren't for the fact that they were interested in womans they would have literally drooled and it didn't exactly help that he radiated pure power.

Yeah they were gobsmacked.

When Harry came home again after yet another trip with the Death Trap he was so tired he could hardly keep his eyes open. And he still didn't have his wand! And so he crawled into the cupboard, ones again looking the way the world thought Harry Potter looked and he fell asleep as soon as he had locked the door again.

—

**A/N: Another chapter! Wooo! Thank you for all the rewievs and follows and favs! It means a lot to me.**

**I hope you liked it.**

**I haven't decided if he should be in Gryffindor or Slytherin yet but right now I'm leaning more towards Slytherin. **

_**-FantasyDeath**_


	3. Chapter 3

**Title: **The Way The World Works (mxm) [A Harry Potter fanfic]

**Summary: **Nine year old Harry Potter discovers the wizard world on a fluke and decides he loves it. He creates a new identity and become someone else entirely. At eleven Harry recieves his Hogwarts letter, but it wont stop him from being him. And it helps that he's a metamorphmagus and a little more devious then people think. When the times comes, they wont even know what hit them.

**Rating: **T (it may change)

**Pairings: **Don't know yet

**Warning: **Will be male/male in later chapters, though not for some while as Harry is still young.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own anything you may recognize!

_§Hello snake!§ equals Parceltongue_

**Ch 3 - Rubeus Hagrid**

The rest of the year passed so fast that Harry could barely remember it. He spent it reading and studying as many different subjects he could. He found that he particularly liked Runes and had found one that, when carved, could allow you to unlock a door which he was taking a great advantage of. He carved the rune on as soon as he found it into the side of the door by the place the lock was so that if he was concentrating enough and his hand was on the door, he could unlock it and lock it again as he wanted and he found that under the age of fifteen Runes didn't register at the Ministry because they were considered to hard to do. However he had found that Runes was just like any other language, the earlier you start the easier it is to understand.

Once again, the stupidity of the Wizarding World was astonishingly.

He had read about the traditions of the Wizarding World, well those that weren't forbidden because they were considered 'evil'. He wasn't really sure of he wanted to laugh or cry when he read that. The urge to throw up was building the more he read and the more he read the more he resented those that called him their Savior. They left him! They didn't care for him, they cared for the small use he could have for them and then he would most likely be accused of some ridiculous crime and thrown in Azkaban or something. It seemed like something they would do.

Harry found that Goblins and other creatures were misunderstood and basically didn't have any right to do anything other then what they were being ordered to do. House-elfs were one thing, they apperently likved to serve, literally, but goblins? Centaurs? Hell even gnomes.

He didn't really see how gnomes were "vicious evil creatures" that had to die. Not without reason anyway.

Griphook and Snarktooth taught him Gobbledegook and Harry was surprised to realize that the language was incredibly old. They even had a few books in gobbledegook written by Merlin himself. There was a lot of vaults that he couldn't access until he was seventeen and he could only claim two lordships a year after he turn thirteen. It pissed him off, but he still had access to his money so he wasn't complaining.

In Hogwarts: A History he found out that as heir to Ravenclaw he could access the Restricted section of the library in Hogwarts and all those books that were there was technically his to do with as he pleases. It was the reason some books screamed and bit when taken from the shelf. Only a heir of Ravenclaw was allowed to read them. Apperently none knew that and since Dumbledore took over as Headmaster he has moved several books there and therefor given over ownership of those books to Harry. He felt kind of smug for days after he had found that out.

He also found the books on Potions fascinating and when he went back to Diagon Alley where he bought every book he could find on the subject together with Herbology. It was closely related after all and Harry quite liked working in the garden and he had already vowed that when he moved out he was going to get his very own garden that he could do with as he please.

His hatred for Dumbledore only grew as he read about some of the laws he passed. It was ridiculous! He was basically passing laws making him untouchable. It was truly a crime, the level of stupidity these people suffered from, the way they were groveling at his feet and were even willing to kill for him.

It was disgusting and Harry honestly had to wonder how their whole world hadn't fallen apart yet.

Harry learned to ignore Petunia and Vernon as their hatred for him went up. Dudley continued chasing him around and bullying him. He had even invented a game called Harry-Hunting. Harry swore he would get revenge one day. One day a little after his tenth birthday while he was running he suddenly found himself on the school's roof. The weird thing was that the roof didn't have a door. He got the worst beating of his life when he got home after that and his resentment for the muggles grew as he realized they weren't going to do a thing to help him.

He spent most of his time in his cupboard and he wasn't ashamed to say he had started to ignore his homework completly, only doing them in the last second as that way it was more easy to get the teachers to think he was worse at school then Dudley. He couldn't afford to do better then him or he was scared his uncle would actually kill him.

He had studied the laws of the wizarding world and was appelled that there wasn't one against the abuse of children. It was as if they took it for granted that no one would hurt them. However when he looked longer back, about a century, he found one that said it muggleborns or magical orphans were abused in any way they would be taken and relocated. It took a lot of snooping around to find out that Dumbledore was the one that had pushed for that law to be removed. More then ones did he wonder what was wrong with that man.

On Dudleys eleventh birthday the day started like any other day. Harry was woken up by his Aunt Petunia banging on the door to the cupboard and then when Dudley ran up and down the stairs screaming at him to get up.

"Wake up Potter! We're going to the Zoo!" Harry almost groaned when he was reminded what day it was and was about to walk out when his cousin ran past and pushed him back in again before slamming the door shut in his face. Harry just sighed and pushed himself up again and tried to ignore the ache that was now in his back.

Harry had to restrain himself from throwing up as he heard Petunia coddle with Dudley and wishing him a happy birthday. He walked into the kitchen and could barely stop the sneer from showing as Petunia glared at him.

"Why don't you just cook the breakfest and try not to burn anything."

"Yes, aunt Petunia." He answered and sincerely wondered what the heck happened to her braincells.

Petunia put her hands over Dudleys eyes and led him to the table with his presents nearby. "I want everything to be perfect for my little Dudleys special day." Harry wondered why Vernon had married her, especially since he hated anything abnormal and Petunias family certainly were not _normal_. Perhaps she had gotten his mother to give her love-potions.

Vernon looked at him. "Well, hurry up, boy! Bring me my coffee!"

"Yes, Uncle Vernon." Harry watched as Dudley saw his presents and could almost see the greed in his eyes.

"Aren't they wonderful my darling?"Petunia smiled, but Harry could already see the way Dudleys eyes were taken over by anger.

"How many are there?"

Vernon simled at Dudley, looking smug and not a little creepy. "Thirty-six! Counted them myself."

Dudley glared and screamed. "Thirty-six! But last year, last year I had thirty-seven!"

"Yes, well some of them are quite a bit bigger then last year." Vernon stated.

Dudley screamed again and Harry wondered how they had managed to make such a spoiled little brat. "I don't care how big they are!"

Petunia stared down at Dudley and Harry could just see the her thoughts. She was going to give in. She _always_ gave in. "Wait, wait, this is what we are going to do. When we go out, we're gonna buy you two new presents. How is that, pumpkin?"

Harry sneered at the look she gave Dudley and tried to stop the curses he wanted to use. However he couldn't be caught using that kind of magic, not until he found a way to destroy the wards around his house.

He had read up on different kind of wards and hoped that when he went to Hogwarts he would find out which wards were placed on him. The Goblins had erased the Trace that were on him, using the excuse that it would die soon anyway, if no-one reapplied it. He guessed that would happen at Hogwarts.

It still pissed him off though.

A little while later they were going out to the car and Harry was trying to ignore the feeling that something bad was going to happen soon.

Vernon pulled him aside just before he could get in the car and grabbed a hold of his arm in a far to tight grip. "I'm warning you now boy. Any funny business... any at all, and you won't have any meals for a week. Get in!"

Harry climbed into the grey silver car as fast as he could and tried to ignore Piers and Dudley as they insulted him again and again. It was just there luck that Harry wasn't bothered by it anymore. During the ride to the Zoo Harry got a couple of jabs to his ribs by Piers and he thanked his lucky star that Dudley wasn't nearly as strong as he thought himself to be. However that didn't mean it didn't hurt.

He passed time buy counting how many cars they passed as they drove and tried his best to ignore his cousin and his best friend. It still pissed him off about it, he fact that Dudley could have friends and he couldn't. The only ones who were his friends were some of the people in Knockturn Alley. He still couldn't understand why people always took detours to get away from the Alley. He quite liked it there.

When they arrived at the Zoo Harry left the car last and immediatly went to the Reptile House while trying to ignore the other people that were there. It was Harry's first time at a zoo, of course he was going to pretend he was alone. Especially since talking with reptiles wasn't something the average person could do.

Not even many wizards could do it.

Harry had found out that only the descendants from Slytherin could do it. He also found out that his mother came from a long line of squibs from different famous people, which were why he had so many lordships.

Inside the reptile house it was a lot more quiet and less people. Harry frowned when he thought about it. Not many people liked snakes and he knew it was even worse in the Wizarding World. They thought that snakes were pure evil and didn't have thoughts of their own. It made him incredibly mad when he found out about that and just made him want a snake of his own that much more.

He walked further and further in until he stood in front of a cage of a boa snake that positivly huge. After minutes of standing there he was pushed roughly to the side as his supposed family made their way over to him.

"Make it move!" Dudleys voice cut through the haze the push brought him and Harry frowned again.

Vernon hit the glass of the cage. "Move will you."

Dudley immediatly took after his father and started banging on the glass like a crazy man. "Move!" He yells and Harry almost chokes on a laugh. The snake can probably not understand him and if it does it wont move out of spite. Snakes are very vain creatures.

Harry finally has enough. "He's asleep!"

"He's boring." Dudley sighs and walks away, his parents and Piers following him.

Harry looks back at the snake laying in the cage and tries to squash down the feeling of wanting revenge that he always gets when the Dursley's behave that way. It truly is time consuming.

"I'm sorry about him. He doesn't understand what it's like laying there all day, with people pressing there ugly faces up at you." Harry looks at the snake as its head leaves the ground and it rises up into the air. He has always loved the way people are scared of snakes and is not ashamed to say that if he didn't understand them, he would probably be too.

Harry continued. "Where do you come from? Do you miss your family?"

The snake shake his head and wonders if this strange scale-less snake can get him out. If he does, the snake decide, he will get him a mouse as a thank-you gift. It was only fitting after all, as the snake must be terribly sad after the loss of his scales.

The snakes head turned to the wall and Harry turned there as well when he figured out what the snake meant. There it stood in bright, big red letters:

**BRED IN CAPTIVITY!**

Harry stared. "Oh."

The next seconds Harry was pushed to the ground as his cousin came running screaming about what the snake was doing. Dudley put his face to the glass and stared at the snake and Harry watched with surprise as the glass vanished and Dudley fell into the cage and was drenched in water. The snake slithered out and stopped before him looking almost grateful.

_§Thanksss, amigo.§_

_§Anytime.§_ Harry answered.

The snake slithered away and as people screamed and hurried to move out of the way, Harry couldn't help the small smile that grazed his features. Unfortunally he was too slow to remove it and Vernon saw. Harry quickly schooled his features into an impassive mask, but it was to late. Vernon has already narrowed his eyes and Harry knows exactly what that means.

—

The next week passed as Vernon said it would. No food and only allowed out to do his chores. Harry was lucky that he had managed to knick a couple of water off Dudley when he wasn't looking and had, of necessity, learned a wonderful thing called a cooling spell. It worked better then he thought and he was sad to say that without it, he could have died.

When he wasn't working his arse off, he was busy making as many nutrion potions as possible and perfecting the disappearing spell. He had already managed the Notice-Me-Not spell and it was incredibly useful for the trunk in his cupboard. Were anyone to look inside they wouldn't even notice it, which helped him a lot.

He found that he more often then not only got irritated on his wand. He loved it and the feeling it gave him, but it was so much more easier to do magic without it. Oh Harry wasn't stupid, he knew you weren't supposed to do wandless magic. Dumbledore himself had written the law that labeled it as dark and forbidden it from being done. It was ridiculous of course, that they thought they could restrict magic that way. It wasn't called magic for nothing and Harry knew that if things were to continue the way they were going, the Wizarding World would crash and burn.

And Harry was going to be there when it happened.

On the day of Harry's eleventh birthday they were in a small hut in the middle of the sea. It was storming outside and Harry was laying on the cold hard floor with only a thin blanket covering his shivering form. Dudley on the other had was laying on the only couch and was snoring so loud that even if he tried it, Harry wouldn't be able to fall asleep.

Harry carefully draw a birthday cake in the dust on the floor as the time comes closer to 00:00, to his eleventh birthday. He knew very well what those letters were and it was incredibly irritating that they thought he wouldn't find out something that was so important. Something that was a such big part of him.

But people would learn not to underestimate him soon enough.

_BANG!_

_BANG!_

_BANG!_

The entire hut shock with the force of whoever it was that was knocking on the door. On the third try the door completly fell off its hinges and Harry stared at the giant of a man that was standing in the door-way. As he stepped in and put the door back in its place Vernon and Petunia came downstairs with a barrel. Harry could only stared at the man as he threatened his uncle and destroyed the gun completly. However he did not understand why this was the man that had come to give him his letter. He was sure it was Professor McGonagoll's job.

"Sorry 'bout tha'." The mans voice is low and he has a giant brown beard that covers half of his face. Harry sighs as he realizes that this is the best he's going to get.

Harry stares.

Vernon's face turns purple.

Dudley hides.

Petunia stares too.

The man clears his throat. "'M here to you yer Hogwarts letter, 'Arry."

Harry stares some more. "Okay."

The man, whos name Harry still didn't know, looked startled, as if he was expecting Harry to not believe him, which, if Harry was someone else, he probably wouldn't. However as it was, Harry wasn't stupid and he intended the world to know that.

"Well, here it is 'Arry!" The man boomed with a way to loud voice and pulled out his letter from one of the many pockets and held it out towards Harry.

Harry thought about it and then promtly ignored the mans way to cheerful tone and the letter in his hand. "Who are you, anyway?"

If it wasn't for the hair covering his entire face besides his nose and eyes Harry could have been sure he blushed, but as it was, it could have been just as easily the light.

The man cleared his throat again. "Rubeus Hagrid, but you can call me Hagrid, everyone does."

"Wow, it's not every day someone gives you permission to use your last name." Harry was sure his sarcasm was obvious, but regretfully Hagrid didn't appear to notice it. Oh well, he was sure that in a few years, it would be clear as day and then they would have to realize that he wasn't going to be anyone's savior. He was Slytherin through and through, and they were going to have to live with that.

Especially that Dumbledore guy.

Harry took the letter that was still being offered to him and almost snorted when he realized that it looked the same that it had been over fifty years ago, one that he had found in the middle of a book in parcelscript to a Tom Riddle. Not that he knew who that was.

**HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF **

**WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY**

**Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore**

**(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,****Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)**

**Dear Mr Potter,**

**We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.**

**Term begins on 1 September. We await you owl by no later then 31 July.**

**Yours sincerely,**

_**Minerva McGonagall**_

**Debuty Headmistress**

Harry pinched the bridge of his nose, a habit he had picked up by Jensen, an old wizards that had taught him the basics of potions and runes. He did not have the patience for this. He knew what would happen when people found out who he was, he had read the books about him. He thanked Merlin for his ability to metamorph, and that it at least had not been blocked. However the chance that it would be if people were to find out was something that he couldn't risk.

"I don't have an owl, Hagrid."

"Gallopin' Gorgons, that reminds me." Hagrid said, clapping his head to his forehead with enough force to know over a cart horse, and from yet another of his many pockets he pulled out an owl - a real, live, rather ruffled-looking owl - a long quill and a roll of parchment. With his tongue between his teeth he scribbled a note which Harry could read upside-down:

_**DEAR MR DUMBLEDORE,**_

_**GIVEN HARRY HIS LETTER.**_

_**TAKING HIM TO BUY HIS THINGS TOMORROW.**_

_**WEATHER'S HORRIBLE. HOPE YOUR WELL.**_

_**HAGRID**_

Harry almost snorted at the picture Hagrid was making. Why he didn't just transfigure the quill and parchment bigger, he had a feeling he would never understand. It probably had something to do with Dumb-as-a-door.

Hagrid walked out again and threw the owl out into the air after he whispered a few words to it. He wonders if Hagrid has any idea f how to take care of animals, much less show him the Wizarding World. He seemed like the kind of man that would follow anyone blindly as long as they gave him a little attention. Although that could have been his desire to see an ulterior motive in everything.

But somehow he didn't think so.

"Where was I?" said Hagrid, but at that moment Vernon decided to speak again.

"He's not going. We swore we were going to make sure he was normal when we took him in!" Vernon erupted on the side-lines.

Hagrid grunted. "I'd like ter see a muggle like you stop him."

"A what?" said Harry, trying his best to play ignorant. It was quite widenly known that Dumbledore knew mind-magic and Harry didn't doubt he would see how Harry reacted from Hagrid's mind.

"A muggle, Harry, is what we call people without magic." Harry was quite pleased with the expression on his face, even though he was quite pissed off. This was the proof! They knew where the heck he was and they did nothing! Harry was seething on the inside as Hagrid happily declared that it was Harry's bad luck that left him with muggles this big.

Any chance of ever liking the giant went out the window with that.

Hagrid continued. "We'll spend the night at the Leaky Cauldron and tomorrow I'll take you to buy your things."

Petunia shrieked and Vernon cursed. Dudley was still hiding in the corner.

"Oh, I almost forgot." exclaimed Hagrid. "Here yer cake 'Arry, happy birthday! It's not every day you turn eleven!" And then Hagrid pulled a cake out of yet another pocket, which Harry was sure he had sat on at some point.

Harry tried to ignore the impending headache coming his way. "Excuse me, sir. But what actually is Hogwarts? I can't be a wizard!"

"Well yer are 'Arry, just like yer parents." said Hagrid and Harry was sure he could see some tears there as well. "And then they were killed by You-Know-Who and it was just so sad!"

"Who's you-know-who?"

Hagrid lowered his voice conciderbly. "He's the darkest wizard in centurys. He's the heir of Slytherin too, all wizards in Slytherin are dark, Harry, yer don't want to go there."

Harry glared at the floor while trying not to curse the bastard that was sprouting nothing but lies. "You'll tell me all about Hogwarts right? And how will I go there, I know they wont pay for it?"

"Of course I will 'Arry! And yer parents payed for Hogwarts before yer were born." Harry did have to admit he wanted to go to Hogwarts. He really wanted to go to Hogwarts. He may not support the side his family was on but that didn't mean he shouldn't know anything about them.

Harry sighed. "Okay, I'll go with you."

"Wonderful! You'll love it 'Arry!" Hagrid exclaimed in a far to excited voice.

**—**

**Finally! **

**It's finished! **

**Okay my fingers are sleeping right now but I'm incredibly thankful for all the reviews! **

**By the way, which house do you think Harry should be in at Hogwarts? I can't decide and would love to hear your opinion.**

**Thank you for reading and I hope you liked it!**

_**-FantasyDeath**_


	4. Chapter 4

**Title: **The Way The World Works (mxm) [A Harry Potter fanfic]

**Summary: **Nine year old Harry Potter discovers the wizard world on a fluke and decides he loves it. He creates a new identity and become someone else entirely. At eleven Harry recieves his Hogwarts letter, but it wont stop him from being him. And it helps that he's a metamorphmagus and a little more devious then people think. When the times comes, they wont even know what hit them.

**Rating: **T (it may change)

**Pairings: **Don't know yet

**Warning: **Will be male/male in later chapters, though not for some while as Harry is still young. A lot of bashing.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own anything you may recognize!

_§Hello snake!§ equals Parceltongue_

**—**

**A/N: Okay I had a couple of questions that I'm gonna try to answer now. Sorry for the wait. **

**First, there is a book at Hogwarts where all people with magic in Britain, well most of them, are the moment they are born. Dumbledore used this book to find muggleborns in Harrys age and after a while decided Hermione would be the best choice for Harry as she is very smart and Harry wouldn't really care to study when she could just do it for him, destroying any desire for knowledge he ever had in the process and making him ignorant. **

**Second, the allure from the Veela in him comes forward when he uses his metamorph ability to make himself older. The body then thinks it is older and so does the allure, allowing it to make it out. However it isn't fully developed yet and won't be until he's around fourteen. **

**Third, he can go to the Leaky Cauldron to eat sometimes, but no matter how mature he seems to be, he is still just eleven and while he is incredibly smart he is also a kid that don't yet knows his way around the neighborhood as he is very rarely let out. Anything he steals from the Dursley's, they don't notice anyway.**

**Fourth, he will eventually do something about the stealing, however he is still underage and can't really control that yet, especially since Dumbledore approved of it and is his magical guardian, illegally or not. He will probably do that if he's entered in the Tri-Wizard Tournament as that will serve as acknowledging that he is an adult and will declare him adult. **

**Fifth, yes Harry is still a Horcrux. **

**If I missed any, let me know.**

**Enjoy reading! :D**

**—**

**Ch 4 - Hogwarts Express**

The next day started as any other day. Harry spent a couple of hours reading as he waited for Hagrid to return and was making notes about runes. The book he was reading was in Gobbledegook about wards and Harry loved it. He was by now absolutely sure he was going to get a mastery in wards some day.

He waited patiently for Hagrid to show up to get him and tried to ignore the feeling of smugness. He was sure Hagrid informed Dumbledore about how it went, and was positive that the man didn't get anything suspicious out of his mind. He had been incredibly careful. He felt kind of bad though, about the way he had lied to him, Hagrid _had_ been nothing but kind to him.

A knock on the door brought him out of his thoughts and he put the book back in the bag. It was bigger on the inside then the outside and Harry had to admit it was genius spell-work. Whoever thought that up clearly had too many books. It also come with a featherlight charm which he adored.

"Mr Potter, Rubeus Hagrid is here to get you." Harry picked up the bag and his minisize trunk, putting them in his pocket. It wouldn't do for people to think he knew about this world.

"I'm coming, tell him to wait!" He listened while Tom left and continued putting away his things. Although he was worried about what he was going to do ones it was time for a wand. Technically you were only allowed one wand and only one, supposedly, fit you right. The wand chooses the wizard and all that.

Harry walked down the staircase that led into the pub that was under and immediatly saw Hagrid. He was kind of hard to miss. With his long coat and scruffy beard he was easy to spot in a crowd. He walked into the pub with a nervous expression, because he had to admit it. He had never seen Diagon Alley in day-light. He was sure it was a sight to behold. It made him even more anxious to get to Hogwarts, after all, the castle was his.

"'Arry! There you are lad." boomed Hagrids loud voice. "I've been waiting for yer. Are yer ready to go?" Almost simultaneously all the people in the Leaky Cauldron turned to stare at him. He could almost see the wheels in their heads turn. It was quite creepy actually.

Harry stared. "All ready."

"Harry Potter?" came a awed voice. As Harry nodded people instantly came up to him and started shaking his hand.

"How are you Mr Potter?-"

"-pleasure to meet you-"

"-how do you do?-"

Eventually they managed to get away from the crazy people and Harry was reminded of why he never went here as Harry Potter. He always came as Rowan, though he did have a habit of changing eye-color when he did. Last time it was black, which he quite liked. It made him look strange but after all this time no-one blinked twice when he showed up in Knockturn Alley with a different eye-color. Sometimes he had two different colors of his eyes. It was something he loved, messing with the color of his eyes. Even the Goblins had gotten used to it.

As Hagrid hit the stones in the archway Harry felt his breath catch. Diagon Alley had been beautiful in the night but it was downright amazing during the day. Everywhere were people walking and talking, laughing and having fun. Harry wanted that. He wanted friends, that liked him for him, dark side and all, and that hadn't been paid by that Old Coot Dumbledore. He'd been told that the Weasley clan were all red-heads and had a plan to avoid them. It mostly consisted of becoming friends with someone they would never, in a hundred years, approve of.

"We'll start at Gringotts 'Arry. It's a bank run by goblins, nasty creatures if you ask me, never polite to anyone." mumbled Hagrid. "It's the safest place there is. Well except Hogwarts of course." Harrys liking for Hagrid went down when he said that, he quite liked the goblins. And besides, from time to time they would insult a wizard in Gobbledegook and Harry had to admit, it was loved to degrade someone they felt weren't worthy, it was why they always were so hard on Dumbledore, and by default, Hagrid.

"Okay Hagrid." said Harry and followed the man into the Alley.

They walked passed different people and Harry could hear people mutter things under their breaths as they passed. It was truly an amazing sight. They entered Gringotts and Harry saw several goblins stop walking towards him when they realized he was with someone. Someone who was stricktly under Dumbledores control. Harry nodded to them behind Hagrids back and tried to ignored the things they were saying about unsuspecting wizards and witches.

Hagrid went to a teller and Harry could almost smell the disgust coming from the goblin. "We're here to pick up some money for you 'Arry here for his school suplies."

The goblin sneered. "Key?"

"Ah yes, I 'ave it here somewhere." said Hagrid as he started feeling his pockets for the key that should be in Harrys possesion. "Ah, here it is. I also have a letter from Dumbledore regarding whats in vault you-know-which, for you-know-what." And he pulled out a envelope out of another pocket which said classified in big bold red letters.

Harry watched as the goblin turned the letter around and opened it, reading it in silence. Eventually he must have decided that it was good enough for he nodded his head at Hagrid. "Griphook will take you." And like magic Griphook ran over to them and looked just as sour as always. He was muttering stuff under his breath in Gobbledegook, something about a stone.

They used a cart to go down to his vault and Harry smiled at the familiar feeling he had come to love. He had a bad habit of coming to Gringotts just to take out a couple of knuts to be able to ride in the cart. He laughed as they drew closer to the end, seeing the amusement on Griphooks face.

When they stopped, Hagrid was the first one out and looked way to green in his face, that it just couldn't be normal. "Are you alright, Hagrid?" asked Harry and for once he was actually genuine. Not everybody liked the way that the Goblins carted them around in the underground. Apperently it was beneath pure-bloods. Not that Harry could see what the big deal was, it was like traveling on a roller coaster. He had only ever been on one of those ones, but he would again, that he had promised himself.

Griphook suddenly stopped walking in front of a vault Harry recognised as his own. "Here it is." He stuck the key in the key-hole and Harry watched as the door was wretched open. He followed Hagrid into it and stared at the pile's of gold that were on the floor. He knew it was smaller and smaller each time he visited as Dumbledore continued to pay his followers.

"Griphook, how much do I need for the cost of all things to bring with me to Hogwarts?" Harry asked with honest curiosity in his voice. He really didn't know.

"Around 320 galleons should be enough." Griphook answered and took out a pouch and started filling it with galleons. He gave it to Harry who took it while trying to not roll his eyes about how stupid this was.

They went back into the cart again and stopped by another vault. Hagrid kept glancing around him as if to make sure no-one sees anything as he quickly picks up a small packet from inside. Harry tried to see what it was but for ones Hagrids big frame was good for something. Harry couldn't see a thing and Hagrid was way to uptight about it.

It wasn't like it was the Philosopher's Stone.

"What was that?" Harry asks, unable to keep quiet about it. He was curious!

Hagrid winces. "Oh, jus' something Professor Dumbledore is moving to Hogwarts 'Arry. Nothing ter worry 'bout."

Harry nodds at Hagrid and smiles up at him in a way that is supposed to be calming. He didn't think is was, based on the way Hagrid looked at him. Harry flashed him his puppy-dog eyes and sat down in the cart again as they went up towards the ground. Harry kept a good grip on the cart and on his pouch as he rode upwords. He pointly ignored Hagrid who was too busy throwing up to notice as Harry took the small packet out of Hagrids pocket. It was red and it was almost glowing and Harry couldn't for the life of him figure out why Dumbledore would want to bring it to Hogwarts.

He put the rock in his own pocket and picked up a galleon from his pouch that he transfigured into an almost exact replica of the other one. The only problem was that it wasn't glowing, so Harry put a small notice-me-not charm on it. Hopefully it would at least stop people, cough Dumbledore cough, from looking to closely. Besides, the stone was really pretty.

Harry and Hagrid walked out of Gringotts, both happy for completely different reasons. Harry because it had been fun to watch Hagrid throw up and listen to the goblins insult people without their knowledge, Hagrid because he was finally off that Death-Trap. Hagrid carelessy felt for the stone in his pocket and stopped ones he felt it. He had been worried it would fall out, but it seems he had been rather lucky.

Sometime away from the bank Harry opened his letter. It wasn't a surprise what was in it and Harry was sad to see that most of the books for the book list wasn't really any good for learning. Maybe a good read, or to cross-check information, but not learning from the start. But perhaps it was there way of ensuring that you studied? Of course it was stupid, as in his experience, kids don't usually study out of their own free will. Not everyone can be as weird as him. Ot maybe it was totally normal and that was the reason so many people respected Dumbledore, because he dumbed down school and got rid of everything or anyone that could challenge his authority.

Who knows?

Well Harry didn't care. Because at that moment, they walked into Flourish and Blotts and Harry was in heaven. There were people everywhere and he could hear mentions of himself in the speeches, but he didn't care. He was busy running around with a basket and putting all the books for school he could find in there. In the end he put what he guessed the second-year books would be too. He had long since lost Hagrid somewhere in the crowd and he abscentily played with the small stone that was in his ear. It had become a habit since he got it and Harry didn't regret it.

Harry ignored the few curious gaze's thrown his way as he made his way to the desk at the back of the store to pay for his many books. He was going to Hogwarts, he had a right to skip and laugh!

When he had payed for the books, thy made their way to the apothecary, while Hagrid told him about the different Houses at Hogwarts. "And then there's Slytherin, all dark wizards and witches go there. Yer parents were Gryffindor through and through 'Arry, and all Potters go to Gryffindor."

Harry only smiled at Hagrid and pretended he didn't want to smash his skull in. He had long ago decided he was going to wait a few years until he started killing. He was to young to go to Azkaban anyway. After the apothecary they went to Madam Malkins and Harry was sad to say he didn't get treated specially. He'd have thought they would know he owned a big part of the store. Oh well, not everyone can know everything.

"Hogwarts dear?" a young woman asked him and Harry nodded.

She smiled. "We have another young man getting measured right now thats going to Hogwarts as well. Come along and stand still will you?"

Once again Harry nodded and stepped up onto the small platform in front of a mirror. While he was being measured Harry was glad he had gotten his eyes fixed in Knockturn. It had hurt a couple of days after but never since and he could see better then ever. They boy who stood next to him had platium blond hair that was almost white and pale skin with grey-silver eyes. He had that way of standing that Harry knew came from having money and important parents.

"Hullo," said the boy, "Hogwarts too?"

Harry nodded. "Yes."

"My father's next door buying my books and mother's up the street looking at wands," said the boy. He had a bored, drawling voice. "Then I'm going to drag them off to look at racing brooms. I don't see why first-years can't have their own. I think I'll bully father into getting me one and I'll smuggle it in somehow." Harry was strongly reminded of Dudley.

"Have _you_ got your own broom?" the boy went on.

"No." said Harry.

"Play Quidditch at all?"

"No." Harry said again, wondering why on earth so many people were obsessed with the sport. He supposed the flying could be part of it, but other then that, it really wasn't all that exciting.

"I do - Father says it's a crime if I'm not picked to play for my house, and I must say, I agree. Know what house you'll be in yet?"

"Ravenclaw I think, but I'm not sure." Harry answered.

"Well no-one really knows until they get there, do they, but I know I'll be in Slytherin, all our family have been - imagine being in Hufflepuff, I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?"

"I'm sure they have their perks. Perhaps comfy chairs in the common room?" Harry said, while trying not to laugh at the face the blond pureblood - because he has to be a pureblood - made.

"I'm Draco, Draco Malfoy." the boy put out his hand as they stepped down from the platforms and Harry grasped in firmly with his own.

"Harry Potter."

—

The rest of the day went well. He got a wand at Ollivander's, a holly with a phoenix feather. For some reason, Hagrid looked extremely pleased when he told him, ut Harry didn't really care. They got the rest of his stuff and Hagrid bought him an owl. A snowy white owl that was to smart for her own good. He named her Hedwig in the end.

The stunned look Draco had when he left Madam Malkin's was enough to make him laugh. He settled for snickering instead.

The holly wand worked well for him, but it didn't feel as good as his own wand. It could have been his wand, ut as it was, it was just a spare wand that he had to use while at Hogwarts and that had a tracer in it so that the Ministry would know where he was at all times. Or more like Dumbledore would know. It didn't really matter to him, he would take it off ones summer came again.

Hedwig had decided to use his shoulder as perch, but Harry found that he didn't really mind. It was nice and to be totally honest. Harry wanted friends. Just not the kind of friends that were only with him because of the money they would get out of his vault. And he had a feeling Hedwig was his first real friend. Although, Draco was a possibility.

Harry left Hagrid at the Leaky Cauldron and went up to his room again. He dropped the new bought trunk on the ground that was filled with his school things. He had ended up using all the money he had taken out of the vault at Gringotts with Hagrid which he didn't really regret. He could afford it. It was just to bad he couldn't claim lordship for a few more years, as he was willing to bet it was at least some interesting things in the other vaults he had.

But as it was, he had enough books to read.

So Harry spent the rest of the night reading. Then he spent the rest of the month reading and making potions that he sold in Knockturn Alley, because there was no-way that he needed all of those now that he wasn't going back to the Dursley's for some time. And besides, potions was really interesting. That was the reason he had to go to the Alley and get more ingrediens every other day. Though Mr Bert probably didn't mind.

He also read up on wards, but there wasn't much he could find on it. Not the kind that was around the Dursley's house anyway. He was however, sure that something would exist in the Restricted Section at Hogwarts, and as he was the Heir of Ravenclaw he wouldn't have any trouble getting in.

On September 1 he stood at King's Cross station in London and wondered how he would get in. People were walking all over the place and Harry was quite sure there were no platform 93/4. He was about to give up and get back to the Leaky Cauldron when he saw a family of red-heads running into a brickwall, only difference was that they went through it. Harry didn't stop to think, he just started running there and when he was close enough he could see more people running in there with there carts. So Harry did as well.

He felt the wash of magic pass over him and then he was out on the other side. He still had ten minutes to spare so he went on board the train, only the trunk he bought with Hagrid and Hedwig out, the rest small and in his pockets.

He passed a lot of compartments until he came to the back of the train where he found an empty one. He sat in it and after a few minutes of pushing his trunk up on the hill finally succeded. That was when he remembered he had magic. Harry blushed even though no-one was around and wondered when people would start boarding at the back where he was, as the train would soon leave. He saw the family of red-heads pass through the barried a couple of minutes to eleven when the train would leave. He had now conducted they were the Weasley family that were stealing his money.

Eventually, when the train left, sadly all Weasley's, except the little girl, had boarded the train. He sat down and started reading the first-year charms book.

Two hours into the train ride a knock sounded on the door before it was pushed open and a girl with bushy hair and bug teeth and a slightly pudgy boy entered. The boy had tears running down his cheeks and the girl had that know-it-all wibe.

Harry ignored them.

"Have you seen a toad? Neville's lost one." the girl demanded. Her voice was to high and gave him a headache.

"No." Harry said and went back to reading after briefly looking up at them. Hopefully they would leave.

"Oh, are you reading the charms book? I've read all my books of course, i'm the first witch in the family, I am ever so excited. Hogwarts is the best school you know." the girl continued and Harry wanted to hit her with his book. He wasn't usually a violent person but for her he could make an exception.

She continued talking. "I'm Hermione Granger, by the way and this is Neville Longbottom. You?"

"Harry."

"Oh," she said. "what an ordinary name."

Neville must had seen the murderous glare he sent the Granger girl, for he took a hold of her elbow an turned her around. Smart boy.

"Come on Hermione, lets leave him alone." Neville said in a soft and slight weak voice. Hermione however followed him anyway, probably to go looking for him.

Harry went back to reading.

Another hour later and the door was opened again, this time by Draco Malfoy. Draco had two body guards at his side and a superior look in his eyes.

"There you are, Potter. I've been looking everywhere for you. This is Crabbe and Goyle, friends of mine." he sauntered into the compartment that Harry had now officially claimed as his and sat down, a body guard on each side of him.

Harry smiled. "Hello Draco."

The rest of the train ride was spent eating chocolate frogs and telling stories. Or well, Draco told stories and explained what Quidditch really was all about, it was just too bad Harry still didn't have any intresst in it. It sounded like a waste of time and Harry didn't want to know anything about it.

Harry finished reading another book and then they played a game of Exploading Snap. The only time they got interrupted was when Ronald Weasley entered, luckily Draco didn't call him Potter then. The Weasel left pretty quick, with his face as red as his hair. It really didn't suit him.

Eventually the train stopped and they all left it. "Firs'-years! Firs'-years over here!" Hagrid stood on the middle of the road and collected all of the first-years. Hagrid beamed when he caught sight of Harry that had somehow gotten seperated from Draco. "C'mon, follow me - any more firs'-years? Mind yer step, now! Firs'-years follow me!"

They followed a path down to the docks where plenty of boats lay. Harry could see many of them and wondered what would happen if someone fell into the lake and couldn't swim. Perhaps they would simply let them drown.

"No more then four a boat!" Hagrids loud booming voice came and Harry hurridly stepped into one, not wanted to be left behind. Two girls and one boy went into the same boat with him. "I'm Harry."

The italian looking boy answered first. "Blaise Zabini."

"Susan Bones." a red-brown haired girl said.

The last one was blonde and didn't have any emotion on her face. "Daphne Greengrass."

In there boat it was silent after that. Some time later they saw the first view of the castle they would be going to school for the next seven years at. It was magnicifent and Harry already loved it. It felt like home and e could literally feel the magic in the air welcoming him as an heir to the castle.

Yes, this was home.

"Everyone duck!" Hagrid shouted and everyone but Harry did who was too busy staring at everything and basking in the feeling the castle gave him. The feeling of security and safety. Lucky for him there was no real need to duck so he didn't fell over the edge of the boat into the black lake.

They made it safely onto the ground and Harry could see quite a few people looking ill. It made him want to laugh, but he stopped himself as he didn't want to look like a fool.

Hagrid knocked three times on the big castle doors they were standing in front of on the steps. It swung open at once. A tall, black haired witch in emerald-green robes stood there. She had a very stern face and Harrys first thought was that could probably be a much better headmistress and then Dumbledore.

"The firs'-years, Professor McGonagall." said Hagrid.

"Thank you, Hagrid I will take them from here."

She pulled the door open wide and the Entrance Hall was so big you could have fitted the Dursley's entire house in it. It made him wonder how big the rest of the castle was and which house he would be in. He really hoped Ravenclaw now. It sounded far better then Gryffindor anyway and he was an heir to Ravenclaw. That should count for something should it not.

They followed her as she walked in again and Harry was amazed by the way it looked. Harry could spend his life here. They walked passed on the flagged stone floor until they stopped with Professor McGonagall in front of another pair of huge doors. She turned around and everyone stopped as well.

"This is the entrance to the Great Hall. This is where you will eat and feast. It is also where you will get sorted. There are four houses, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin. You will wait out here until I come and get you." and she turned around and walked through the doors, the doors closing with a bang after her.

Harry waited outside the Great Hall with the rest of the first-years and tried to remember if he had ever read how they sorted them. He thought it had something to do with magic but they just be asking questens to you. He heard someone mention fighting a troll and Harry snorted. Dumbledore wasn't that crazy, was he?

Suddenly he could hear screams of fear and he looked in the direction everyone else was. Ghost's! And many of them! They were a pale white and see through, and it was clear that they were arguing over something or another. Not that Harry cared, in fact he toned them out as he waited for McGonagall to return.

Eventually she did and they followed after her as they entered the Great Hall where hundred of students were sitting and eating. Harry looked up at the ceiling and was pleasently surprised to see stars there, he knew it said so in Hogwarts A History but he couldn't be sure. However he loved it.

McGonagall stepped up near the table where the teachers sat was and placed an old ratty hat on a three-legged stool. The hat opened its mouth and started singing.

_**Oh you may not think I'm pretty,**_

_**But don't judge on what you see,**_

_**I'll eat myself if you can find,**_

_**A smarter hat than me.**_

_**You can keep your bowlers black,**_

_**Your top hats sleek and tall,**_

_**For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat**_

_**And I can cap them all.**_

_**There's nothing hidden in your head**_

_**The Sorting Hat can't see,**_

_**So try me on and I will tell you**_

_**Where you ought to be.**_

_**You might belong in Gryffindor,**_

_**Where dwell the brave at heart,**_

_**Their daring, nerve and chivalry**_

_**Set Gryffindors apart;**_

_**You might belong in Hufflepuff,**_

_**Where they are just and loyal,**_

_**Those patient Hufflepuffs are true**_

_**And unafraid of toil;**_

_**Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,**_

_**If you've a ready mind,**_

_**Where those of wit and learning,**_

_**Will always find their kind;**_

_**Or perhaps in Slytherin**_

_**You'll make your real friends,**_

_**Those cunning folk use any means**_

_**To achieve their ends.**_

_**So out me on! Don't be afraid!**_

_**And don't get in a flap!**_

_**You're in safe hand (though I have none)**_

_**For I'm a Thinking Cap!**_

_**—**_

**A/N: End of chapter four!**

**I have no beta. All mistakes are mine.**

**Thank you for all the reviews and follows!**

**Till next time.**

_**-FantasyDeath**_


	5. Chapter 5

**Title: **The Way The World Works (mxm) [A Harry Potter fanfic]

**Summary: **Nine year old Harry Potter discovers the wizard world on a fluke and decides he loves it. He creates a new identity and become someone else entirely. At eleven Harry recieves his Hogwarts letter, but it wont stop him from being him. And it helps that he's a metamorphmagus and a little more devious then people think. When the times comes, they wont even know what hit them.

** Rating **T (it may change)

**Pairings: **Don't know yet

**Warning: **Will be male/male in later chapters, though not for some while as Harry is still young. A lot of bashing.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own anything you may recognize!

_§Hello snake!§ equals Parceltongue_

**—**

**Ch 5 - Restricted Section**

The hat stopped singing and Harry stared at it as McGonagall started calling names.

"Abbott, Hannah," Harry watched as a blonde girl with pig-tails ran up and sat down. The hat was placed on her head and covered half her face. Harry couldn't help but wonder if he would look that ridiculous as well, sitting there. "Hufflepuff!"

"Bones, Susan," McGonagall called and the red-brown haired girl Harry had sat in the same boat with walked up to the hat and sat down. "Hufflepuff!" She walked to the same table that Hannah had and sat down while laughing.

"Boot, Terry," ended up in Ravenclaw.

"Granger, Hermione," sat on the stool for several minutes while the Headmaster's gaze never left the hat. Eventually it called out Gryffindor. For Harry it was stareingly obvious that the Headmaster had influenced the hat, he would have been able to bet that girl was supposed to be in Ravenclaw. Or perhaps even Hufflepuff.

More names were called, but Harry didn't pay anymore attention to the sorting. He was busy taking in the faces of those around him and trying to place what kind of looks they looked at the Headmaster with. He was disappointed to see that many looked at him with blind adoration in their eyes. It was disgusting and Harry hated it.

"Potter, Harry," McGonagall called out and immediately whispers broke out everywhere in the hall and Harry could feel irritation seeping in. He couldn't understand what was so special about him, he was just Harry. Oh, he was going to be special soon, but he wasn't now. And wouldn't be for a while.

Harry walked up and sat on the stool, the hat soon being placed on top of his head. Darkness clouded his vision as his eyes were covered and Harry felt something probbing at his mind.

_"Ah, what a mind you have. Such potential. You could be great you know. And what is this. Not the Golden Boy are you? There's been such a long time since I sorted a mind like yours, boy. Yes you'll do great in..."_

"RAVENCLAW!" Harry almost cried in relief. He wouldn't have to be in Gryffindor together with the thieves.

Harry walked fast down to the table and sat down next to Boot, ignoring the stunned silence that was everywhere, before the Ravenclaws started clapping. Harry smiled at them and proceeded to eat. He was slightly aware of Blaise going to Slytherin but that was it. He gave Blaise a tums-up and then pointly ignored everyone else. The Headmaster spoke a speech and Harry wasn't listening. All he heard was something about a third floor corridor and a painful death. Needless to say he was going to stay away from there. Harry really didn't want to die. It was a problem of his.

After the feast was finished the prefects led the first-years through the castle. Harry was trying to memorize each turn they took, but after fifteen he was completely lost. Hopefully he could follow an older student to the Great Hall tomorrow. There were people all around, joking and laughing and although Harry wanted that as well, it wasn't a must. He could survive without friends. Besides he had a library to abuse. It was, technically, his after all. Hell, the entire castle was.

They stopped in front of a wall with a painting on it. "Password?"

"Anemone." the male perfect answered. "Don't tell anyone the password who's not in Ravenclaw and if you don't remember it, you'll have to wait for another student to come along."

They followed the prefect into the common room and Harry stared with wide eyes at it. It was a beautiful room with plenty of space and warm blue colors. There was a painting of four people above a fire-place and soft looking cushions in front of it. Here and there, there were tables with chairs and in one corner was book-cases filled with books to the brim, some looking like they could fall apart in an instant. The whole room has a soft glow, the light not to bright, and Harry instantly falls in love with it. He could easily spend the rest of his life here.

"The boys dormatory is to the right, the girls to the left. Your name will be on the door, to which room is yours, the elves have already brought your things there. Breakfest starts at seven and classes at eight-thirty, you'll have to follow an older student to breakfest and someone will show you the way to your first class. Good night, everyone."

Harry followed the other kids to the staircase and made small polite talk when requested of him. Otherwise he ignored them as he walked passed with a slightly smug look on his face. He still couldn't forget the look Dumbledore had when he realized that the Gryffindor Golden Boy aren't in Gryffindor. It was worth all the trouble he had gone through these last few years. And Ravenclaw was the house of the intelligent and Harry wasn't sorry to say that he was smart. Smarter than most and they should know that. The second he turns seventeen he will sure all those people who used his name without his consent.

Five doors down the corridor and Harry saw a dark brown door with his name written in gold on it. And only his name. He opened the door and was pleasently surprised. The walls were soft blue and the wood on the floor, dark brown. There was a bed in the far right corner and a desk on the opposite wall. There was a closet close to the bed and a bedside table with a candle on it.

In one corner his school trunk was and he walked toward it. He changed into his pajamas as he was incredibly tired and tomorrow classes would begin. He was looking forward to what Dumbledore would do when he realized Harry wasn't within his grasp. Harry blew out the light and then went to bed with a smile on his face. He was at Hogwarts!

—

The next morning, Harry woke up at six am and spent the next hour reading a book on potions. He had heard that Snape was a complete bully and he wasn't going to let him ridicule him. And if that meant re-reading a book he had read before then so be it. It was a book on the way different ingredients reacted to each other and why you should never ever mix some of them together unless you had a death wish. Some plants became neuturalized and useless if mixed with the wrong amount of some other plant and could ruin the whole potion.

It was a complicated subject and just like cooking, Harry loved it. It made him wonder why this book wasn't on the lost of what was required to buy for potions class when the other one only named different potions and told how to them. You didn't really learn anything from it.

At seven thirty o'clock Harry went to the Great Hall for breakfast. There was already some students there, but Harry didn't really care for them and sat down somewhere in the middle of the table while ignoring the sounds around him. Food appeared where he sat and Harry was pleased to see his wish for water had been fulfilled. He briefly wondered where the food came from before he remembered reading about house-elfs in 'Hogwarts: A History'. It was a boring read, but he couldn't deny that it had its uses.

After breakfast and getting his schedule, he went to his first lesson which proved to be Charms with the Hufflepuffs. After being utterly lost for ten minutes he was finally found by an older Ravenclaw student who happily helped him on his way to class. The student was probably a third-year student and was way to chatty. It was annoying but Harry managed to tune it out by thinking of how he would gladly push Dumbledore down a tower. It was a fantasy he decided to persue again in a few years.

The Charms professor is a charms master named Filius Flitwick and a quarter goblin. He was short and has to stand on a pile of books to see past his desk. However his cheerful attitude made up for it. Harry ended up sitting next to the Longbottom boy, someone he thought that maybe someday he could get along with. If only Neville got better self-confidence. The Weasel sat next to Granger and as they practiced the spell, "Wingardium Leviosa" and the Granger girl kept telling him how to say it. It took Harry a couple of times as this wasn't his original wand but then it worked like a charm. Ignore the pun.

Neville on the other hand, somehow managed to blow up the feather he was supposed to be leavitating.

Harry still wasn't sure he wanted to know how.

After charms, Harry got lost twice in his effort to get to the transfiguration classroom and barely made it in time. When he got there, there was a tabby cat sitting on Professor McGonagall's desk unnaturally still. The cat had markings around its eyes and was kind of creepy. When five minutes passed and still no sign of the Professor Harry sighed and pulled out his book on magical theory. Some of the things went above his head but for the most part he understood it.

Ten minutes in to the class a Hufflepuff boys came running in out of breath. Harry thought his names was Smith and he knew for a fact the boy was to arrogant for his own good. Suddenly the cat leaped of the desk and turned into McGonagall in the middle of the air.

"Five points from Hufflepuff Mr Smith, for being late." McGonagall said sternly and Harry allowed a small smirk on his lips for a fleeting second before he squased the feeling of amusement down.

McGonagall then went on to turn her desk into a pig and back again. It was impressive but not something Harry wanted to learn. He didn't think he would ever be able to see the desk as just a desk again. To be perfectly honest he didn't see the need of Transfiguration other then to learn to be an animagus. The Professor started walking around and giving matchsticks to the students. For some reason she looked at him disappointed when she walked by him and pointly ignored him. It caused a flare of anger to burn within him and after a short glare Harry pointly ignored her back. If she didn't want to spend any time teaching him, then he didn't want to spend any time listening her.

Harry was the first one to complete the transfiguration after only a few tries, quickly followed by a Padma Patil. Of course, McGonagall ignored his successfulness and gave only one point to Patil. When some random Hufflepuff boy finally managed she gave him ten points. Harry could see the angry face of the Patil girl and felt a brief moment of pity with her as he was, after all, also ignored.

It just stand to show that McGonagall was not as professional as she would like people to believe.

When Transfiguration finished, it was time for lunch. Harry steadily ignored everyone he saw, while pretending he didn't hear the whispers and rumors about him. He knew that it wouldn't be long before the Headmaster would call him to his office, probably to talk about his placement in Ravenclaw. A hero should be in Gryffindor after all.

Harry sat down next to the edge of the giant table and quickly started eating the food that appeared. It didn't take long until he was full and when he was he started getting up. He was stopped by a Ravenclaw prefect.

"Professor Dumbledore wants to meet you in his office. The password's Twix." and then the female Ravenclaw prefect left without looking back.

Harry decided that he wanted to know what Dumbledore would say and immediatly started on the way to his office. Unfortunally the girl never told him the way and it took Harry almost twenty minutes to find the Headmasters office. Mostly because he didin't really try. The Headmaster was an old fool that had to much power and not enough common sense. Harry knocked on the door after the gargoyle had let him up and was on the inside scowling.

"Ah, Harry my boy, how are you feeling?" was the first thing Harry heard when he entered the room.

"I'm okay. Was there something you wanted?" Harry said.

Dumbledore smiled in a grandfatherly way. "I'm glad. I'm sure your very excited to be here. Such a shame your not in Gryffindor like your father. I taught him you know, such a nice young man. A shame he had to die. For the Greater Good, you agree."

Harry snorted on the inside. "Of course Headmaster Dumbledore, I understand." You need a scape-goat.

"Good, good Harry, now I want you to understand that if you ever need a re-storting then all you have to do is ask. I am here to help you Harry and I am not entirely sure Ravenclaw is the right house for you. After all, your parents were both in Gryffindor."

"I think I will wait a little while to make that decision, sir. For now I have a library to raid." Harry says and turns around without waiting for an answer. He knew Dumbledore would try to stop and Harry can't have that. So Harry turns around and walks away from the office with a light skip in his step. It was a good day whenever you had the chance to one-up Dumbledore in his own game. He was now incredibly grateful he had spent that time learning to play chess. Though, Griphook was a fierce player that tended to beat him every time they played.

Oh well, it was still fun.

—

The library of Hogwarts was amazing. It was rows upon rows of books and this was what Harry imagined heaven looked like. Harry didn't believe in God but it was a nice fantasy. That he would go somewhere after he dies. Not just stop existing. It's a secret fear of his.

Harry entered the library with a almost like skip in his step, it was so many books! How can he not be excited?! And the est part was that he owned some of them. The library was huge and had a home-y air about it that made you want to live there, it wouldn't surprise him if Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw was the ones that designed it. From the stories he had heard from them Helga H. was a warm woman who accepted all and Rowena R. was incredibly clever.

Harry immediatly rushed to a book-case and started browsing. After a while he grabbed a book on runes that looked interesting. It was one that he didn't have and looked fairly old. Of course that didn't mean it was right, he would have to cross-reference. He briefly wondered if the Magical World thought the world was flat five-hundred years ago too. If they still thought it. He didn't think they even know what gravity is.

After all, muggles are just brainless idiots, right?

He sat down at one of the empty round tables with wooden chairs and started to read the book he had in his hand. He soon got lost in it and didn't notice time passing. He was so lost in the book that it didn't matter if there was a few things he didn't quite understand, he could fix that later. It wasn't until Madam Pince shook his shoulder that he stopped reading.

"Mr Potter, the library is closing and its about time for curfew. You can check out the book if you want, but you need to leave." Harry looked up at the face of the grey haired woman and nodded at her with a thankful smile.

"Of course, thank you for reminding me." said Harry and packed his stuff back in his bag. He checked out the book he had been reading and left the library in a hurry. He was actually kind of tired.

When he came back to his room he left the book on the desk and hurried to change to pajamas so he could sleep. It had been kind of weird being around magic the way he was. He had spent a lot of time in Knockturn Alley, but this was different. Harry had recently put up a post box in Diagon Alley that from now on would forward it to another one in Hogsmead in the name Rowan Arawn, all he had to do was empty is once in a while.

It worked like a charm.

Harry spent the night sleeping without a care in the world, when he woke not remembering a thing of his dream. He was warm and for the first time he was sleeping in a truly comfortable bed. Why the Headmaster didn't want him to be in Ravenclaw was beyond him. When the morning came he was well rested and ready for new knowledge. His messy black hair and green eyes made him look like he didn't have a care in the world and that was exactly what he wanted. He wanted to be in the back-round, where no-one would ever check to look for him.

Harry smiled at those he passed on the way to breakfest. He was hungry and had a un-ending need to finish reading the book he had started on. He quickly ate what appeared on his plate and drank his water. He ignored the looks the Headmaster kept sending him and instead concentrated on his first class in Potions. He had been looking forward to it his entire summer. He really liked Potions.

After breakfast he went back to his room and took out the things he needed to bring to his class. Harry then walked out of the Ravenclaw common room and started the long walk to the dungeons where the Potions classroom was. He managed to find it a mere minute before the class was supposed to start and gratefully hurried in. He ended up sitting next to Draco Malfoy, the boy he had met at Madame Malkin's. Just after he had sat down the door closed.

Two seconds later the door was pushed open so violently that it banged against the stone wall. A man dressed in completely black clothes and a billowing black robe behind him, with greasy hair and a long nose that had clearly been broken before stood there with a look of complete and utter contempt on his face. He walked to the front of the class room and started saying the names of the people in this class. When he came to Potter he stopped.

"Ah yes," he said softly. "Harry Potter. Our new … celebrity." he then continued on with the name calling until it was finished.

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potions-making," he began. He spoke in barely more then a whisper, but they caught every word - like Professor McGonagall, had the gift of keeping a class silent without any effort. "As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect any of you will really understand the beauty of of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses ... I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death - if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."

Harry almost rolled his eyes, but he had to admit it was true. There was far to many dunderheads in this world for him to be happy. At least right now.

"Potter!" said Snape suddenly. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

Harry's eyebrows frowned. "A sleeping potion known as the Draught of Living Death."

Snape snarled. "Where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"

"In the stomach of a goat, it cures most poison's." Harry answered.

"What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?" Snarls Professor Snape out. Harry straighten his back as he tries to remember what the difference is. He _knows_ he knows it!

Harry smiled as he remembered. "They're the same plant, Professor."

"Correct, Potter," said Snape. "Well, why aren't you writing that down?"

Suddenly there is twenty something quills scratching away at parchments. Harry carefully look around and ignores the stares he is receiving. He knows they all thought he was going to be in Gryffindor just like his parents. It's honestly kind of sad, the interest they have in his life just can't be healthy. He shakes his head a little and look at the instructions on the board as he apparently missed the one Snape gave.

Harry walks to the front of the classroom and grabs the ingredients he need and starts to prepare them while keeping a close eye on his cauldron. He'll be damned if he is going to let someone mess it up!

At the end of class, Harry is smiling as he hands Snape his finished potion. Someone tried to add something to it, but Harry luckily managed to stop it. Sadly he couldn't see where it came from so he couldn't rat them out. Not that he would use that phrase, but that was essentially what he would do if they tried it again. Harry left the dungeons after saying goodbye to Draco. The boy might be arrogant but he wasn't nearly as snobby when you got to know him. And that he was good at potions didn't hurt either.

When evening came after dinner Harry waited until he was alone in the common room and used a spell he had seen in one of the older students charms book to silence the area around him so no-one could hear him. Then he cast the notice-me-not charms and walked out. It as relatively easy to get to the library. He almost sopped breathing ones when a passing prefect walked around the corner. When he didn't notice him he grinned in victory.

At the library Harry stopped briefly to take in the silence that wasn't that normal for such a big place. Then Harry walked passed the shelves filled with books until he came to the gate of the Restricted Section of it. It had a dark aura and was gloomy looking but Harry felt a sense of home he had never felt before. He stopped in front of the iron gate and looked up at it, wondering how he was going to open. He wasn't even sure how it was locked.

In the end Harry put his hand on the handle. "Hello Hogwarts. My name is Harry Potter and I am the heir of Ravenclaw. I humbly request permission to enter Ravenclaws Library and read its books." The gate quivered and shaked slightly before they opened just enough for Harry to slip in between the cracks.

"Thank you." Harry felt an answering feeling of warmth and love fill him as he walked inside the library known to others as the Restricted Section.

Harry walked passed a dozen or so shelves filled with books and scrolls before he stopped in front of one shelve. The book that had captured his attention read Moste Potent Potions on the spine together with the numbers 1863. It didn't say who had written it but that hardly mattered to him. What mattered was that there was a book that wasn't to bad and no-one could accuse him of being evil if they saw him with it. Draco would probably like it too.

He took the book down from the shelve it was on and blowed on it to take away the dust that covered it. He brought it close to his face as it was quite dark where he was and after staring at it for minutes and determining it wasn't going to start screaming at him Harry moved it so he could hold it under his arm. He then turned around and walked out of the Restricted Section as he wasn't sure if Dumbledore had it monitored somehow and would know s someone was there.

Harry then made his way to the Ravenclaw common room and successfully sidestepped everyone he crossed paths with.

**A/N: And that was chapter five. **

**I hope you enjoyed it.**

**Thank you for the follows and favs.**

**It means a lot to me that people like what I write.**

**Tell me what you think and have a wonderful summer break.**

_**-FantasyDeath**_


	6. Chapter 6

**Pairings: **Not sure yet.

**Warnings: **Some bashing.

**Disclaimer: **I own nothing. JK Rowling does.

* * *

**Ch 6 – Halloween Feast**

Albus Dumbledore was pissed. All his plans were falling apart because of one little brat. The stupid brat was supposed to be in Gryffindor and want to be just like his parents. He couldn't understand where things had gone wrong. He had left him with the Dursley's to make him weak and malleable. To make him eager to please and so he would see Dumbledore as his savior. And think, all those money he had given the Weasley's! All for naught.

He had carefully instructed Molly Weasley to be at the muggle side of the train-station and use her impressive, if not slightly weird, set of lungs to grab young Harry's attention. He had made sure Hagrid didn't tell Harry how to find the station and leave him there to find it himself. He had made sure the Granger girl would use any excuse she could find to search the entire train for him. He was after all, paying for her education. Well, Harry was but she didn't need to know that. No, the girl depended far to much on books and authority figures to really see the truth and sometimes he found himself pitying her. She would not make it far in life, especially with her attitude and rude comments. Heck, even he found himself mad at her from time to time.

The day she made honest to god friends, would be the day it snowed in Hell.

Albus sat down in the chair behind his giant desk in the middle of his office. He sighed as he looked at the statement from Gringotts. He needed to stop paying the Weasley's so much money, he had already emptied an entire vault. In this speed it would be gone before he could get his full hands on it and that just wouldn't do. Imagine the books and magical artifacts that had to be in some of those vaults. It was a shame he could only access the money.

Not that he hadn't tried of course, but he needed to bring Harry with him to get that and he couldn't do that. Surely a child even as dense as Harry would notice. Harry wasn't smart, he had looked after him and his grades in muggle school was horrible. No the only reason he was even in Ravenclaw to beginning with, he decided, was because Hagrid must of said something about Lily being smart and Harry wanted to be too then. Because Harry was just a stupid brat that didn't understand what had to be done for the Greater Good.

He picked up a Lemon Drop and started thinking. He needed Harry to become friends with the youngest Weasley boy and the Granger girl. He was sure there was a Ravenclaw and Gryffindor lesson where he could get mandatory seating arrangements done and put those three insufferable brats together. Then at least the Weasley boy would stop whinging about how Harry wasn't his friend and how it wasn't fair.

He needed Harry to go against Voldemort and die a horrible tragic death and then he would swoop in and kill Voldemort once and for all. Harry needed to die, he was a living horcrux and he couldn't take the risk of him going dark. Besides they had hailed Harry as a hero for far to long. He was the hero and they should all know that. Why they couldn't see that was beyond him.

* * *

Harry frowned where he sat in the Astronomy classroom at 11 pm. It was late at night and all Harry really wanted to do was sleep. Sure stars was fascinating and kinda cool, but he wasn't sure what the point of learning it in the middle of the night was. Just because electricity didn't work at Hogwarts didn't mean that all muggle things didn't. He was willing to bet that a muggle projector without the use of power would work just as well as looking up in the middle of the night. Hell, a muggle map would be more useful.

Wizards really were stupid.

Or perhaps it's just the light side and the Ministry of Magic.

Harry listened as the teacher, Aurora Sinistra, attempted to teach about astronomy and how it was useful in other fields of magic. Now Harry understood what she was talking about, there was certain herbs that worked best when picked in a certain part of the moon cycle and stars were cool. However it was still dreadfully boring and Harry didn't even want to be there from the start, much less in the middle of the night.

When the lesson ended Harry left with heavy eyes and a scowl on his face. He was tired and restless, he wanted nothing more then to sleep. He rubbed his eyes again on the way back to the common room, having finally been able to memorize the right way supposed that in seven years it would be a lot easier to remember when he would have walked the same way hundreds of times. His green eyes was clouded with sleep and his hair, the unbeatable mess it was, was sticking up in all directions. He walked through the door that was now protected with a riddle, barely conscious as he answered it. The riddle thing started earlier that week, the older years saying it was tradition. Ravenclaws prided themselves in being smart, so they wouldn't have any trouble answering a riddle, would they?

He had lost count how many times he had answered riddles and someone had sneaked in behind him, thinking he wouldn't notice. They didn't even say thank you.

It made him want to hit something.

He laid down on his bed in his room that he had entirely to himself after finishing with everything else. Harry pulled the dark covers over him and before he knew it, he was sound asleep. In Harry's dream he was suddenly standing on a small road in the darkness of the night. Everything was dark and there were no stars or moon in the sky. It was cold and his breathing quickened.

Harry shivered and tried to keep his breath steady as sounds he can't identify surrounds him. He can barely see pass two feet in front of him as a thick mist suddenly covered everything. He wondered why he was aware of the dream, but quickly stopped thinking about it. He wanted to wake up. He took his skin between his fingers and pinched himself as hard as he could. Seconds later he awoke gasping for breath in his bed.

After a few minutes of staring at the ceiling, Harry went back to sleep.

Harry woke up to the sound of banging on his door. When he looked out the window with sleep-lidded eyes Harry saw the sun shining in his face and was temporarily blinded. He groaned when the banging on the door didn't stop and momentarily wondered what dream it was that had woken him up in the middle of the night, but stopped when he couldn't remember a thing of it. The banging continued and Harry tore the sheets of him and strode up to the door, opening it with a furious scowl on his face.

"What?!" he snarled.

The young boy that was his age whose name he thought as Boot jumped and looked startled. "You won't have time to eat breakfast if you don't leave now. Just thought you should know."

"Thanks." Harry muttered and closed the door in the boys face.

It was the day of Halloween and time had passed so fast it was cruel. He had spent the last two months reading every book he could get his hands on and spent most of his time in the library. He didn't have any friends, not that he needed any. Though he could stand the Weasley twins, they at least had a brain unlike their younger brother, Ronald. He didn't think they had gotten any money, they didn't seem to be the type and from what he had observed their mother barely looked at them twice. She could, apparently, not even tell them apart. At first neither could Harry, until he noticed that Fred's eyes were a shade lighter blue than George's. It wasn't something you noticed if you weren't looking for it and Harry founding it had been an accident.

Today they were going to learn their first charm. Or well, they were going to do magic in charm class for the first time. They had only worked with theory up until that point and Harry couldn't be more excited. He threw on the first cloths he got his hands on and hurried through everything else to get to breakfast. Boot was right, he had woken up later then usual and he didn't want to miss breakfast. He quite liked it and he was getting three meals a day here, he was not going to ruin it. He was still taking nutrition potions for the years of malnutrition and starvation he had undergone.

He was not going to look like a walking skeleton ever again.

Harry made his way pass the hallways to the Great Hall for breakfast. He had his books and other things in his satchel. When he came there he quickly walked until he came to his usual seating and started eating as soon as food showed up. He had still not found the kitchens, but he was going too one day. He swore it!

After breakfast during which he spoke a quick expression of gratitude towards Boot and then ignored everyone else, he walked out of the hall with a ship in his steps. He had a smile on his face as he went to the classroom for DADA. He ignored everyone during that class even as he sat next to Granger and the youngest Weasley boy. Apparently the Headmaster had had the marvelous idea that mandatory seating in DADA was a good thing. Harry hated it. Those two didn't get along at all and they constantly bothered him about one thing or another. If Harry somehow got better results than them, then they instantly started accusing him of cheating. Because according to them, he was as stupid as a troll.

It pissed him off.

Especially since he was sure that Dumbledore was the one who got them thinking that.

Eventually after a day of horrible classes, it was time for Charms. Harry hurried there as fast as he could without running, as he had a terrible habit of tripping when running. He came in a few minutes before class started and sat in the middle of the classroom. Several moments passed before Harry was wondering if perhaps Flitwic had fallen down his chair in his excitement. Suddenly Flitwic appeared from behind his desk and Harry startled before he realized that he wasn't the only one shocked. Flitwic stood up on his desk and started the class.

"One of a wizards most rudimentary skills is levitation, the ability to make objects fly. Do you have your feathers? Good. Now, don't forget the nice wrist-movements we've been practicing. Swish and flick, everyone. And pronounce, Wingardium Leviosa. Now you try it." Harry picked up his wand with the rest of his class and carefully said the latin based words. Nothing happened. Which was stupid because he had done this before. It should bloody well work! Unless of course, his new wand messed up more then he thought.

He did it again. He could see the feather quiver, like it was trying to resist something that wasn't there. It was frustrating. When he looked up he could see Granger and Weasley sitting next to each other, the girl trying to teach Weasley to say it right. When Weasley dared her to try it since she thought she was better then him (he didn't say that outright, but there was no need), she picked up her own wand and said the incantation. And it worked! Either she had had prior training or she was simply good at it. Weird that that didn't translate into DADA.

Harry grumbled under his breath about spoiled brats and tried again, this time concentrating as much as possible. And it moved! The feather arose! He was mentally dancing in his head now.

And maybe he was smiling smugly at Granger, but there was no need to mention that right?

Harry was walking pass Weasley when he heard him say that Granger didn't have any real friends. While Harry did not approve of bullying, the boy was right. The girl was in the wrong house if she wanted friends, she was to smart for them. But still, Weasley was a bully, and a stupid one too, and Harry thought that perhaps he should say something. However before he got the chance, the girl had already run off, probably to cry.

He sighed and mumbled troublesome under his breath. Hogwarts wasn't as great as he thought it too be. Sure it was a castle, and that was awesome, but the bullying was everywhere. And not only in Slytherin like everyone had said, there was actually the smallest amount of bullies there. No it was the other houses, and the worst thing was that they let all Hufflepuff's and Gryffindor get away with it. They called it misunderstandings and pranks. The favoritism was the worst though. He got picked on by the Gryffindor's and called a traitor and no-one did anything. Because Gryffindor was apparently the same as good.

Harry managed to not hex someone until it got time for the Halloween Feast, by staying in his room and reading books he had stolen from the Restricted Section of the library. It was a book about different specie's, like vampires and werewolf's. Why it was in that section, Harry couldn't be sure. It was completely harmless. It hadn't tried to eat him even once.

He grabbed the pair of dark blue robes with silver linings and pulled them on. He was just so thankful he no longer had to use glasses, they were simply put, hideous. His hair, which reached his shoulders, were pulled into a low ponytail. He slid the small hoops into his ear-piercings and smiled to the mirror. Hopefully no-one would bully him, he really didn't need that. He was already tired and wanted nothing more then to go to sleep.

The Great Hall was filled with pumpkins hanging from the ceiling and the tables were filled to the brim with candy and other sweets. People were loudly talking with one-another. Harry sat in his own little corner of the Ravenclaw table and ignored the food on the table. He didn't think he would be able to stomach it. No what he needed was healthy food, not this shit they made the students eat. Harry sighed once again as he thought about what Weasley had told Granger. He didn't have any friends either, but he did not think it was something to cry about. Maybe he really was a freak.

Another sigh escaped his lips as Harry stared at the teachers. Dumbledore in particular was looking happy. And Harry had a feeling a happy Dumbledore was an evil Dumbledore.

The doors to the Great Hall were violently opened and Professor Quirrell ran in. "Troll! Troll in the dungeons! Just thought you'd want to know." and he promptly fainted forward. Silence. Panic. Screaming giving Harry a headache. Harry put his hands on his ears as hundreds of students simultaneously screamed and panicked. Dumbledore's voice suddenly cut out through the hall and Harry sighed and rubbed his ears at the blessed silence.

"Silence! Prefects will lead their houses to their common-room. The Professor's will deal with this, there is no need to worry." Harry stood with the rest of the Ravenclaw's and quickly went to follow the prefects. He had no desire to meet a troll. Honestly, he would have screamed as well had that not been incredibly embarrassing. When he screamed, he sounded like a drowning cat. It was not a pretty sound.

It was on the way to their common room in the hallway that he overheard Longbottom say that some Hermione girl was missing. Harry thought the name sounded familiar and it very well could have been, but he had been studying so much lately that he just couldn't remember where he had heard it. But that wasn't what was important, what mattered was that a girl his age were crying in the girls bathroom without any cue that there was a troll running around. Now Harry was pretty heartless and nothing really mattered to him, but he would not have a death on his conscience. He just wouldn't. Especially when the dead girl was his age.

So Harry sighed again and left the horde of students that was slowly making their way to the Ravenclaw common room. Hopefully he hadn't just signed his death warrant.

Harry walked few the corridors at a relatively slow pace, he couldn't smell that awful smell that the books stated all trolls had. He continued walked until he came upon the door to the girl's bathroom and was just about to go in when a smell so awful he just wanted to run away hit him. It took a moment for his brain to catch up but when it did, Harry opened the door as fast as h could and closed it behind him. The troll was awfully close and Harry did not want to be eaten. He did not delude himself thinking he could take on a fully grown troll, he was a first year student!

He looked around and thankfully he could hear the sound of someone crying in one of the stalls. "Hello!" he called out. The sniffling stopped for a second before it was back.

"W-what do you want? Here to make f-f-fun of me, are y-you?" The voice was easy to recognize, even though it was clearly hoarse from all that crying she had done. Apparently Granger really had gone to cry after what Weasley had said to her. Or well, _about_ her, as she wasn't meant to hear it.

"Look, Granger, there's a troll in the school and it's coming this way, can we _please_ leave?" For once, Harry wasn't ashamed to say that he was begging. He did so not want to meet a troll and die, he was only eleven years old. He had a whole life ahead of him!

A sniffle. "Your lying, your just trying to embarrass me."

The smell was coming closer. "No Granger, I'm not. Everybody is meant to go back to their common rooms while the teachers deal with it."

Harry stared as the girl slowly opened the door to the stall and stepped out. Her face was red and blotched and she had tear-streaks down from her eyes. Eyes that were red and puffy. "Good now why don't we sit down and hide as the troll is coming closer by the second."

He stared at her until she stopped sniffling and sat down with his wand in hand just in case. Not that he could do much. He was a first-year for crying out loud!

A boom stopped his thinking and Harry's eyes went to the door that was now bent as if something massive had hit it. The room shook slightly as the troll put more pressure on the door. It must have smelt them or something.

Harry's grip on his wand tightened as the troll kept smashing into the door in its attempt to bring it down. After only three more times, the door gave way and the troll went bumbling in. Harry was shocked at how ugly the thing was and for a moment could barely think as he was overtaken with fright.

The scream Granger let out could have woken up the dead. For a moment, Harry thought he had gone deaf. He rolled away as the troll tried hitting him with its giant wooden club.

For the next ten minutes, Harry had no idea what happened. All he knew was that there was a lot of rolling and dodging going on. He kept using every single spell he knew of but nothing worked. The few things that did were always useless after only a few seconds. He could see his life flash before his very eyes as he realized that this is what death to him looked like. Getting smashed by a troll. For a few terrifying moments, all he could do was stare at the thing as the club gets closer and closer to his head. It's not until Granger screams again, this time his name, that he wakes up. As he follow his instincts, he say the first spell he could remember.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" However he missed ad instead of hitting the troll, the spell hit the club, forcing it out of the trolls grip. Harry stared at it for a moment, enough for him to loose concentration and the spell is instantly broken. The club fell. Harry's breath left him as he stared down at the still form lying not more then ten feet away from him. How the hell did the stupid troll get in anyway? Wasn't Hogwarts suppose to be the safest place in the world?

He should really learn more spells. Perhaps some curses just to be safe.

Harry sat down and for the net half hour, he and Granger sat in silence while waiting for someone to show up. He had a feeling Granger was going to yell at the first person she sees. Not that he would mind, he wanted to yell at someone too, but he had a funny feeling that there weren't many teachers that would tolerate to be yelled at. If she pissed off the wrong person she could very well be expelled. Which reminded him, he needed to find the Hogwarts Charter. Surely it would have some kind of mention of trolls and what to do about it in there, right?

Eventually the teachers came. Granger was up so fast, he thought she would fall down from dizziness again. Harry frowned as Dumbledore awarded points for courage and the will to save a friends. Snape was busy staring suspiciously at Professor Quirrell and McGonagall was looking stern as she took points for running towards danger. But he could see a proud look in her eyes, was she proud he had ran towards danger like a Gryffindor would, or that he had saved a Gryffindor from certain death? He couldn't tell. From what he knew, McGonagall was a former Gryffindor herself, perhaps she thought it was acceptable if it saved someone else and was noble. Apparently Gryffindor put a lot of value on being noble and a gentleman. Of course, everyone ignored the blatant bullying they got away with.

After receiving praise for his "heroic acting" from Dumbledore and a glare from Snape , Harry returned to the Ravenclaw common room. Though not showing it, the troll had affected him. He had almost died, for gods sake! Why wasn't anyone doing anything?! He needed to study harder,learn more things. He should start running every morning to increase his stamina, too. In case he lost his wand, he needed to be able to run away and duck, preferably at the same time.

Yes, it was decided.

He was going to train harder.

* * *

**A/N: Ok, I'm sorry for the long wait, I really appreciate all the reviews, they make me so happy. **

**So someone told me that Harry has to much. That's not really true. Think about it. The Slytherin line is completely broke or the Gaunt's wouldn't have lived in a shack. The Potter's are descendants of Peverell and Gryffindor, both of which are noble houses with a lot of history. Some of the properties will be in terrible condition and it will cost a lot of money to renovate them. Ravenclaw I think, valued books and knowledge over money. Some of the vaults will be empty. With the amount of money Dumbledore gives away like it's candy, that wont take long. The Potter's are a Noble and Ancient House, they are naturally rich. The Black's, yes I will admit they have a lot but with the amount of money that is being stolen from Harry's vault, he will need that. I'm thinking that the Amour family is probably extinct now and married their last daughter into the Potter family to give her a chance to a better life as they them-self was broke. And even without this, his name carries a lot of weight and he is famous. The Evans are now only a line of squibs, Harry's mother being the first one to have gotten magic in generations. In this story, the Evans are the last descendants of Le Fay and at some point they gained the Merlin lordship through the right of conquest. Harry is therefor not related to Merlin. The Hufflepuff line has ended and as Harry is the heir to the other three founder's, he gains that lordship through some old line in Helga Hufflepuff's will.**

**I also hope that this help with the questions regarding Dumbledore. He's simply been the hero so long that he's gotten use to it. He's addicted to the way people look up at him and like they say, power corrupts. At some point, I'm sure he had honorable intentions,but that was a long time ago. He is convinced that he is the one to save the wizarding world and that the sacrifice of one matters less then saving thousands. In his mind, the wizarding world is his to do what he pleases and Harry is threatening that.**

**I'm sorry for the spelling and grammar mistakes, English is not my mother tongue. I've recently started watching anime and so far my favorites are KHR and Naruto. I'm thinking about writing a KHR fan-fiction, but I don't know Japanese so I would have to research that first. Especially honorifics or I'm afraid I'll make a complete fool of myself. **

**Anyway, thanks for sticking with me! School starts again in a week so there won't be any updates for awhile just so you know. I was sick a lot last semester, so I need to pick up my grades. Hopefully this year will be better. **

_**-FantasyDeath**_


	7. Chapter 7

**Warnings:** Slash later in story.

**Disclaimer: **I own nothing.

**—**

**Ch 7 - Yule Holidays**

Harry spent the next few months working on spells and reading up on the Wizarding World. There was plenty of fascinating books in the Restricted Section and as that part of the library wasn't restricted to him, he could read those books just fine. He was aware of the many failed attempts Hermione Granger did to follow him, though he couldn't understand why, and knew he would need to do something about it soon, before she got the illusion they were friends.

Honestly, he was started to be creeped out by her.

Now Harry was aware that humans were social creatures and could go insane if confined alone for too long and had come to the conclusion that he would, someday, need friends. However, as Harry had never had a friend before and those he had been close to becoming friends with having been chased away by Dudley and his gang, he had no idea how to make said friends. The first step he knew, was conversation. Than came the next problem.

How the hell would he find someone to talk with that wasn't obsessed with him!?

Really, the British magical community was so strange and ridiculous.

Harry turned the page in the potions book he was reading in his room and tried to concentrate. Christmas was coming and in a few days, many of the students would be going home to celebrate it with their families. Harry had no such thing (he would _never_ consider the Dursley's family) and as such, would be staying at Hogwarts during the holidays. Harry didn't mind that, in fact he loved it, but he also knew that very few people would be staying and the castle was already big enough. It would be different with not so many people around. On the other hand, he might actually be able to find the kitchen's now.

He wanted to have a talk with the cook's on proper nutrition.

Harry wouldn't exactly say that he was lonely. He had been alone for so long he didn't _know_ what it was like to have a friend. But, from time to time, he sometimes wished to have a friend. Someone to share secrets with and maybe have fun with. And so far, the only ones he could imagine being friends with were the Weasley twins. He had contacted Gringotts and gotten confirmation that the twins, Charlie, Percy and Bill Weasley had never gotten any money from him. It was just the parents, and the two youngest children. Not that that was much of a comfort, his money was still being given away like it was candy and he couldn't stop it until he became Lord Potter.

So the Weasley twins were the solution. They were going to be his friends and to be honest, he had always wanted to prank someone. It was on his to-do list before he died. Hopefully, they would be open to helping him prank someone, preferably Snape. That man hated him for no reason at all and to Harry, it was time someone got back at him.

Harry put away the notes he had written in a muggle notebook. Why he would bother with a quill and parchment when a simple pencil and paper was more efficient and easier, he didn't know. The book was placed on the bookshelf and he left the room. He was going to find the twins and see if they were up to a prank with him. Maybe that would be enough to start a friendship with them and he didn't need to bother with the conversation thing.

He walked passed the hallways until he came to the library. He had seen them there before looking up spells and hopefully they would still be there. He had no desire to search the entire castle for them, no matter how much he really wanted to prank Snape. Honestly, the castle was so big he could probably get lost and no-one would notice for a good fifty years. It kind of scared him a little bit, but he had learned to ignore it during the months he had been at Hogwarts. He wondered if there was other schools in the UK. For some reason, he doubted it. And then he wondered how many people with magic existed in Britain when it couldn't be more then eight-hundred people at Hogwarts.

The library was quiet and quite empty when he entered. Harry walked through the shelfs and searched. Just when he was about to give up he saw them. They were bent over a map on a table and were speaking in hushed voices with each other.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

The Weasley twins looked up with a deer-in-the-headlight look and looked at each other before the one on the left spoke. "Nothing. What are you doing here?"

"I want to prank Snape. You up for it?" it would be better to get it put at once and avoid the awkward silence he hated.

Harry looked as the one on the right, who he could now say was Fred, spoke. "We're always up for pranking Snape! What do you want to do? We've got a ton of ideas."

—

The next day was a friday. It was snowing outside and the weather was nice. It was also the day that the train from Hogwarts left to take those that would be spending Christmas at home to Kings Cross station in London. Harry on the other hand was sitting in the Great Hall at the edge of the Ravenclaw table, waiting for the prank to take effect. They had put a potion in Snape's drink that would turn his hair neon pink and another one in his food that would make talk like a chicken for three hours.

Harry watch with poorly hidden glee as the potions took effect and the twins grinned at the Gryffindor's table.

He looked away to stop himself from laughing and studiously ignored those that looked at him to gauge his reaction. The Headmaster was casting spells after spells trying to undo some kind of spell he thought had been used, in the end only making it worse. Snape now had pink skin and claws.

—

Christmas morning came and Harry slept. When he woke up it was already passed ten o'clock. Harry yawned as he looked around his room, apparently the presents were supposed to come straight there. He was pretty sure he was not going to get any presents though, the Dursley's would nerve give him anything.

Therefor it was a surprise when he saw a small pile of presents in the corner of his room. He made his way there and sat down on the floor in front of it. The first thing he picked up proved to be a box of different sweets from the Weasley twins and a book on jinxes and hexes that he had never seen before. The next was a blue knitted shirt in with a bronze 'H' on it from Mrs Weasley. He would check it for spells later, but he was grateful. Even if it was most likely hit with a tracking charm or two. The nest present was a shimmering fabric and for some reason he got the feeling this was the Invisibility Cloak that had been taken form his vault by Dumbledore. There was a note with it.

**_Your father left this in my possession before he died.  
It is time it was returned to you.  
Use it well.  
A very merry Christmas to you._**

Harry scoffed at the trick Dumbledore was trying to pull. His father had _not_ left anything with Dumbledore, he had stolen it.

But nonetheless, it was one thing less he needed to worry about finding and getting back. He may resent Dumbledore, but sometimes the man schemes fell right into his lap and who was he not to take advantage of it. Harry bit back a curse when he realized he had missed breakfast.

The rest of the day passed in the common room where he read his new book. He snacked on the sweets from time to time and ignored the few others that had stayed over the holidays. It was when the time got closer to ten in the evening that he realized he was supposed to meet Fred and George at the library. They were supposed to talk about more pranks they could pull but he had completely forgotten about it.

He cursed as he hurried up to his room and grabbed his new cloak. It would probably had some type of trace on it but he was only going to the library. It wasn't like he was going down to the dungeons to break into the Slytherin common room.

Harry walked through the halls and cursed his faulty sense of direction because damnit, he was so lost. It was the stupid staircases fault and their moving around. How anyone could find their way to where they needed to be in the place was a mystery to him. They should put of a map in all the common rooms. And everywhere else. Because honestly, he had the feeling he was going away from the library instead of towards it. He wanted to stop but as he had no idea where he was, his best bet was finding a teacher and asking for directions back to his dorms. He would probably loose a bunch of points, but he didn't care about that, and maybe get a detention if it was Snape who found him. As it was he was lost and beggars couldn't be choosers.

After a while he came across an abandoned classroom. He was about to leave it when he saw the giant mirror in the middle of the room. There was an inscription carved around the top:

_Erised __stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi._

Harry blinked and pulled off the cloak. He stood in front of the mirror and looked into it. At first, he didn't think there was anything special about it. Then after he had looked at it for a few moments, he noticed something. In the mirror there was a hand on his shoulder. When he followed he saw a red-haired woman, a woman he recognized as his mother Lily Potter from the one picture he had managed to find when he cleaned the attic once. He had managed to hide it from Petunia for over a year, he had dreamed about her being alive and picking him up from the Dursley's and taking him somewhere else.

As he looked, more people formed in the mirror. He thought that one of them had to be his father but more then that he couldn't tell who they were.

—

For the next few nights, he would find his way to the mirror and guess who was who. He could spend hours in that classroom and the more he did, the more he ceased to care. He thought that maybe there was some kind of spell on it that got him to want to return, but then he realized that it was because he saw his parents. He didn't miss them, he couldn't miss what he didn't remember, but he would have liked to have known them. As it was, no-one would tell him anything about his parents other than "You look just like your father with Lily's eyes." and he was getting sick of it. He wanted to know who his parents were and what they were like, and so far this mirror was the only one that provided any answers.

Harry was sick of the way no-one answered his questions regarding his parents, he was their son, he had a right to know.

Until one day Dumbledore entered while he was looking at the mirror. If he had wondered if the cloak had a tracer on it, he knew now. Harry ignored the Headmaster and continued watching his mother. He wanted so bad to have red hair like hers, but he couldn't chance Dumbledore finding out he was a metamorphmagus. If he didn't already know, it could only end badly for him.

"Back again, Harry?"

Harry stared at the mirror. "I didn't see you, sir."

"Strange how short-sighted being invisible can make you." said Dumbledore and Harry was not relieved to see that he was smiling. When Dumbledore smiled, it spelled bad things for Harry. He got the feeling he had done something exactly like Dumbledore had wanted and he didn't like it. He was no puppet.

"So," said Dumbledore, slipping off the desk to sit on the floor with Harry, "you, like hundreds before you, have discovered the delights of the Mirror of Erised."

"Is that what it's called?"

"Yes, Harry, and I expect that by now you've realized what it does?"

"It show you what you want the most. How didm you know —?"

"I don't need a cloak to become invisible." said Dumbledore gently. "The happiest man in the world would be able to use the Mirror of Erised like a normal mirror, he would see himself exactly like he is. Men have wasted away before it, entranced by what they have seen, or been driven mad, not knowing if what it shows is real or even possible. The Mirror will be moved to a new home tomorrow, Harry, and I ask you dot to go looking for it again. If you ever _do_ run across it, you will now be prepared. It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that. Now why don't you punt that admirable Cloak back on and get off to bed?"

Harry stood up. "Professor Dumbledore, what do you see when you look in the Mirror?"

"I? I see myself holding a pair of think, woollen socks."

Harry stared.

"One can never have enough socks." said Dumbledore.

When he laid in bed that night he thought that Dumbledore had probably not been truthful at all. It had been a personal question though, but Harry didn't really care about that.

Really, the Wizarding World was utterly barmy.

—

By the time New Year's Eve came around, Harry had read a few more books, played two more pranks on Snape with the twins and managed succeeded in the Switching Spell. With the twins help of course, but he was much better at it now. Fred and George had also showed him the abandoned classroom they used to brew their potions. They had used the books they had gotten from Bill, their oldest brother, to ward it so no-one not invited could find it and so the potion fumes would have somewhere to go. They had no desire to have greasy hair like Snape.

It was fun, being with Fred and George, they didn't worship him because he was Harry Potter or want his autograph. And they were good friends — because, yes, they were friends now— that didn't have a problem with him not knowing how friends were supposed to act and his tendency to ignore them in favor of his books.

Seriously, he couldn't count the number of times they were hanging out and he started reading, completely forgetting they were there.

Harry sat in the chair in the corner of the classroom and looked up when one of the twins finally managed to get his attention away from his book on norse runes.

"Yes?"

Fred — he was pretty sure it was Fred — smiled and said. "We said, there is a three-headed dog on the third floor and according to our map, his name is Fluffy."

Harry blinked. "Oh, you mean a Cerberus."

"Yeah! We saw Snape leaving the room they keep it in with a limp. Do you think he tried to do something to it?" asked George.

"He probably just got to close," said Harry. "cerberus's are guard dogs. In Greek mythology, Cerberus is the three-headed dog that guards the entrance to Hades."

The twins looked at each other and communicated in that weird way they did. George started. "We're going to —"

"— ask Charlie to —"

"— get us a book —"

"— on Greek mythology."

"It sounds awesome!" they ended together.

Harry laughed. For some reason, whenever the twins spoke in that way that was so hard to follow, it always lifted his spirits. It also helped that he wasn't the only one confused about it. He supposed it was a magical thing, perhaps other magical twins that grew up in a magical house-hold was the same. Though for some reason he doubted it. He had a feeling that this was something that was unique to the Weasley twins.

By the time the new year started, Harry had made one resolution. He was going to have fun this year and screw what anybody else said. It was his life. And it would start with help of the Weasley twins pranking skills.

Yes, this was going to be a great year.

And if he drove a certain Headmaster insane in the process, well… who could blame him?

Controlling a magical school always presented risks to ones psyche.


End file.
